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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy Adelson Galleries, New York
Nathan H. Manter, c.1878 (Hills no. 26.6.11). Antonio Jacobsen, Island Home, c. 1890, oil on canvas, 22 1/8 x 36 1/4 in. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Blatchford.
Antonio Jacobsen, Island Home, c. 1890, oil on canvas, 22 1/8 x 36 1/4 in. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Blatchford.
Photo: Courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum (whalingmuseum.org)
26.6 Nantucket Portraits and Types

Like many artists in the nineteenth century, Johnson often did paintings of “types” that are actually identifiable portraits. For example, the painting John F. Sylvia shows a Nantucket miller in his barn looking up from his account books to look out the window. Called at one time The Falling Market, the subject suggests a man perhaps assessing his position in the economy in the early years of the 1870s when a recession gripped the nation. —PH

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Hills no. 26.6.11
1907 Sale no. 15
Nathan H. Manter
1907 Sale title: Captain Nathan H. Manter
Alternate titles: possibly Captain Manter, an Old Whaler; A Study; Captain Manter
c.1878
Oil on canvas
13 x 10 in. (33 x 25.4 cm)
Initialed lower right: E. J.
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2022: Although John I. H. Baur owned and annotated a copy of the catalogue of Johnson's 1907 Estate Sale, he did not include this work in his own 1940 catalogue listing; he must have obtained it after publication.

Richard C. Kugler, ed., New Bedford and Old Dartmouth: a Portrait of a Region's Past: A Bicentennial Exhibition of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford, December 4, 1975–April 18, 1976: “The Island Home [a steamer] and her skipper, Captain Nathan H. Manter, were long considered the finest combination of boat and man ever to ply the waters between New Bedford and the islands. In 1861, when Manter took command of the famous steamer, he was forty-three and had nineteen years as a whaleman behind him.  On his retirement in 1891 after thirty years at the helm of Island Home, he estimated that he had rounded Nantucket’s Brant Point forty thousand times, without serious loss or mishap.”

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 15: "The half-length study of an old weather-beaten sea captain, smooth shaven, seated, and resting his right hand on the handle of a stick, his left arm thrown over the arm of the chair. He wears a somewhat shabby tall hat, a brown coat, green waistcoat and a loose dull red tie."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 13 inches; width, 10 inches"
[Annotation: “105.00 / Geo Ainsley? Or Amisley”]
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
[The artist's estate sale, American Art Association, New York, February 26–27, 1907, no. 15 (as Captain Nathan H. Manter)]
George Ainslee, February 26, 1907 (by purchase)
Bernard Danenberg Galleries, New York, until 1970
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, 1970
W. Myron Owen, by April 1971 until at least 1989
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as Captain Manter, an Old Whaler].
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 99, b/w illus., p. 106, as Captain Nathan H. Manter, Collection of Myron W. Owen. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.
1975 New Bedford Whaling Museum
New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts, New Bedford and Old Dartmouth: A Portrait of a Region's Past, A Bicentennial Exhibition of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, December 4, 1975–April 18, 1976. (Kugler 1975).
References
King 1895
King, Edward. "The Value of Nationalism in Art." The Monthly Illustrator 4, no. 14 (June 1895), p. 265, illus., as A Study.
AAA 1907b
Catalogue of Finished Pictures, Studies, and Drawings by the Late Eastman Johnson, N.A. New York: American Art Association, February 1907. Sale catalogue, n.p., no. 15, as Captain Nathan H. Manter.
American Art News 1907b
"Eastman Johnson Sale." American Art News 5, no. 20 (March 2, 1907), p. 3, as Captain Manter.
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, p. 18, no C.49, as Captain Manter.
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 106, no. 99, illus., as Captain Nathan H. Manter.
Kugler 1975
Kugler, Richard C., ed. New Bedford and Old Dartmouth: A Portrait of a Region's Past; A Bicentennial Exhibition of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society at the Whaling Museum in New Bedford. New Bedford, MA: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1975. Exhibition catalogue (1975 New Bedford Whaling Museum).
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-07-18
Examination notes: Brown coat, green vest, grey background. Pink face. Very sketchy. Eyes unclear, but they have expression.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Manter, Nathan H.
Biography:

Captain Nathan H. Manter (1818–1897). “The most famous of the old Nantucket steam-ship captains, retiring from service in 1891, having been employed on Island steamers about forty years, thirty of which were on the Island Home” [Letter from Richard C. Kugler, Director, Whaling Museum, January 27, 1969, to Mr. W. Myron Owen]. Erroneously reported as killed by a whale in 1851 [1907 Sale Cat. no. 53, Captain Coleman].

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Manter, Nathan H.
Keywords
Record last updated November 22, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Nathan H. Manter, c.1878 (Hills no. 26.6.11)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=456 (accessed on March 28, 2024).