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

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Photo: Hindman Auctions
[ 31.4 U.S. Portraits, Women, Unidentified ]info
⊠
31.4 U.S. Portraits, Women, Unidentified

The identities of the women in these portraits have not yet been confirmed. However, the paintings are known or believed to have been done in the United States based on factors including their style, inscribed dates, and the appearance of the sitters when images are available. Johnson painted the vast majority of his oil portraits after he returned to the United States from Europe in 1855. —AM

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 31.4.8
1907 Sale no. 117
"Turn on Me Thy Dark Eye"
Alternate titles: Belle; Ideal Female Portrait; Ideal Portrait; Ideal Portrait of a Woman; Portrait of a Woman; Portrait of a Young Woman
1877
Oil on canvas
23 1/4 x 19 in. (59.1 x 48.3 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/-77
Present whereabouts unknown
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.

This may be a portrait of a Johnson family member.

MacGibeny, 2021: The subject wears the same shawl as Mabel Cogswell, daughter of William Barnes Cogswell (1834–1921), a major collector of Johnson's work and husband of Johnson's niece Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell. The two portraits also share a "sunlit sky" background.

Unidentified, undated sale catalogue: "#34: Bust portrait to half-right of a young girl with closely cropped brown curls, her arms folded inside a turquoise blue and gold kimono."

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 117: "The head and shoulders of a young lady, her hands folded across her bosom, the head slightly raised and in three-quarters view to the right, the eyes turning in the same direction. She wears a loose blue wrapper over a white muslin blouse, and her short wavy hair is dressed high on her head. The background suggests a sunlit sky."
"Height, 23 inches; width, 19 inches."
[Annotation: “20.00”]
Markings
Label affixed to stretcher: Wright & Gardner [early spring stretcher patent]
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. 117 (as "Turn on Me Thy Dark Eye")]
Chapellier Galleries, New York, by 1966
Stevan Kissel
[Abell Auctions, California, February 11, 2018, Lot 445, Property from the Estate of Stevan Kissel (as Portrait of a Young Woman)]
Dealer, February 11, 2018
Unidentified buyer (by purchase)
Present whereabouts unknown
References
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. 117, as "Turn on Me Thy Dark Eye".
Chapellier Galleries 1966
One Hundred Selections from the Chapellier Gallery Collection Presented on the Occasion of our Fiftieth Anniversary. New York: Chapellier Galleries, 1966. Exhibition catalogue, no. 71, as Ideal Female Portrait.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): May 11, 1970 (at Chappelier Gallery)
Examination notes: Very soft focus. Blue green shawl with flecks of yellow. White background grading towards pink in the corners. Turquoise stones in silver bracelet. Note pearls in hair. Soft pneumonic hands - very strange, but similar to other portraits of the Johnson family members.
Keywords
Record last updated April 7, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. ""Turn on Me Thy Dark Eye", 1877 (Hills no. 31.4.8)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=469 (accessed on April 28, 2024).