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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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01.0 Euro Genre

By the summer of 1849, Johnson resolved to go to Europe with his friend George Hall. Although he reputedly was earning a good living with his portrait drawings, figure and genre painting attracted him and first-rate instruction in these fields was not available in the United States. Moreover, both artists realized the importance of studying the European masters at first hand. Hall and Johnson were coaxed into choosing Düsseldorf by the American Art-Union, the most important organ of artistic patronage in America in the 1840s. To raise funds for his travel, Johnson sold two drawings to the AAU and was also assured by Andrew Warner of the AAU that the organization would accept future works by him. Johnson and Hall sailed from New York on August 14, 1849, for Europe. He took classes at the Royal Academy in Düsseldorf, but records of his exact attendance are not known. He felt skilled enough by October 1950 to send two oils to the NAD for sale. In a letter accompanying the shipment he admitted he was sending the pictures “rather earlier in my practice of oils than I should otherwise do.” The two pictures, Peasants on the Rhine and The Junior Partner are long since lost. The majority of his genre paintings were done in the Netherlands, after he moved to the Hague in 1851
[Adapted from Hills, The Genre Painting of Eastman Johnson, pp. 27–32]. —PH

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Hills no. 1.0.8
Baur no. 3
The Card Players
Alternate titles: possibly Card Players; possibly The Gamblers
c.1851–55
Oil on academy board
12 x 14 in. (30.5 x 35.6 cm)
Provenance
Augustus F. de Forest, by 1940
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1856 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, March 14–May 10, 1856, no. 60, [possibly, as The Card Players], for sale.
1856 Boston Athenaeum
Boston Athenaeum, Boston, June 1856, no. 375, [possibly, as The Card Players].
1857 Washington Art Association
Washington Art Association, Washington, D.C., First Annual Exhibition, 1857. (Exhibition catalogue: Washington Art Association 1857), no. 46, [possibly, as The Gamblers, owner Eastman Johnson, for sale].
1861 Young Men's Association, Troy
Young Men's Association, Troy, New York, February 1, 1861, no. 221, [possibly, as The Card Players], owner Eastman Johnson.
References
Washington Art Association 1857
Washington Art Association. Catalogue of the Works of Art Comprising the First Annual Exhibition. Washington, DC: Printed at Polkinhorn's Steam Job Office, 1857. Exhibition catalogue (1857 Washington Art Association), p. 4, no. 46 [possibly, as The Gamblers, owner Eastman Johnson, for sale].
Benjamin 1882
Benjamin, S. G. W. "A Representative American." The Magazine of Art 5 (November 1882), p. 487 [possibly, as The Card-Players].
Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), p. 268 [possibly].
Hartmann 1908
Hartmann, Sadakichi. "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter." The International Studio 34 (April 1908), p. 110 [possibly].
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 13, addendum “Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as Card Players].
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), p. 60, no. 3, as The Card Players.
Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 259-260 [possibly, as The Card Players and/or The Gamblers].
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Record last updated March 30, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Card Players, c.1851–55 (Hills no. 1.0.8)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=47 (accessed on March 28, 2024).