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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: University of Michigan Museum of Art
27.0 Literary/Historical

In addition to his scenes of everyday life and portraits of people, Johnson created images of historical events and figures from works of literature, drama, and music. For example, “Carry Me, and I’ll Drum You Through” was inspired by an incident from the Battle of Antietam, 1862, and Membership Vote at the Union League Club, May 11, 1876, recorded a contentious meeting in which he participated much later. His Marguerite, Cosette, and Minnehaha are personifications of fictional heroines from novels and poetry. His Boy Lincoln represents both the future United States president and the archetypical American youth who, with determination and hard work, could succeed. Johnson rendered several of these imaginative images as both paintings and drawings. These literary and historical works evince both his personal interest in those subjects and his awareness of their popularity with the broad public. —AM

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Hills no. 27.0.14
Baur no. 83
Boyhood of Lincoln
Alternate titles: possibly The Boyhood of Lincoln; The Boy Lincoln; The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln
1868
Oil on canvas
46 x 37 in. (116.8 x 94 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson. 1868
Markings
Verso of frame in pencil: CM Selleck
Provenance
Possibly Louis Prang, New York, until 1870
[Possibly Leeds Art Gallery, New York, March 15, 1870, Mr. Louis Prang's Collection of Paintings, Comprising Most of the Originals after which his Celebrated Chromos were Executed, Together with Other Works of Art, American and Foreign, from Several Private Galleries, lot 139 (as The Boyhood of Lincoln)]
Henry Clay Lewis, by 1875 (by purchase)
University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1895 (by bequest)
Exhibitions
1868 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, April 15–June 20, 1868. (NAD 1868), no. 366, [possibly, as The Boy Lincoln].
1875 Lewis Art Gallery
Lewis Art Gallery, University of Michigan, Coldwater, Michigan, Paintings & Statuary, 1875. (Exhibition catalogue: Lewis Art Gallery 1875), no. 550, as The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln.
1939 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, January 18, 1939–February 26, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: Baur 1940), no. 83, b/w illus., Pl. VIII, as Boyhood of Lincoln.
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 57, as Boyhood of Lincoln. 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.
2006 Cantor Center for Visual Arts
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century America, February 1–May 7, 2006. (Exhibition catalogue: Perry 2006), as Boyhood of Lincoln. Traveled to: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., July 4–September 17, 2006; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Maine, November 1, 2006–January 7, 2007.
References
NAD 1868
New York: National Academy of Design, 1868. Exhibition catalogue (1868 NAD), no. 366 [possibly, as The Boy Lincoln].
The Albion 1868
"Fine Arts: Academy of Design." The Albion (New York) 46, no. 20 (May 16, 1868), p. 273 [possibly, as The Boy Lincoln].
New York Times 1870
"Sales of Messrs. Prang and Frost's Collection of Paintings." New York Times, March 20, 1870, p. 8 [possibly, as Boyhood of Lincoln].
New-York Daily Tribune 1870
"Mr. Prang's Collection of Paintings." New-York Daily Tribune, March 19, 1870, p. 4 [possibly, as Boyhood of Lincoln]: "Further off, occupying a conspicuous place, hung the well-known 'Boyhood of Lincoln,' Mr. Johnson's original picture, but not the one from which the chromo was taken."
Leeds Art Galleries 1870a
Catalogue of Mr. Louis Prang's Collection of Paintings: Comprising Most of the Originals after which His Celebrated Chromos Were Executed, Together with Other Works of Art, American and Foreign, from several Private Galleries. New York: Leeds Art Galleries, March 15–16, 1870. Sale catalogue, p. 25, no. 139 [possibly, as The Boyhood of Lincoln]: "This picture formed the main attraction of the 43rd Academy Exhibition, (1868)."
Lewis Art Gallery 1875
Catalogue of Paintings & Statuary. Coldwater, MI: Lewis Art Gallery, 1875. Exhibition catalogue (1875 Lewis Art Gallery), no. 550, as The Boyhood of Abraham Lincoln.
Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), p. 272.
Baur 1940
Baur, John I. H. An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1939 Brooklyn Museum), pp. 41, 63, no. 83, illus., as Boyhood of Lincoln.
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 48, no. 57, illus., as Boyhood of Lincoln.
Carbone and Hills 1999
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 171, fig. 73, as The Boy Lincoln.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): By 1972
Examination notes: Very dark upper left half. Bitumen probably darkened it. There is no rent (in the canvas) - only light shining on weave of canvas. Face is quite good. Monochromatic. Reds, yellows, soft rosy browns similar to the Fader painting. Varies only in details. Canvas - loose somewhat but all right. Outline around boots. Figure is small in relation to objects around. Frame. good. thick.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Lincoln, Abraham
Biography:

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865). Sixteenth president of the United States, 1861–1865.

Related work
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Lincoln, Abraham
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Keywords
Record last updated May 27, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Boyhood of Lincoln, 1868 (Hills no. 27.0.14)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=457 (accessed on March 29, 2024).