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

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Photo: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
John McCloskey, c.1875–85 (Hills no. 31.1.131). Undated photograph of Cardinal McCloskey by Napoleon Sarony. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Cardinal Mccloskey." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 29, 2021. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-fd68-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
Undated photograph of Cardinal McCloskey by Napoleon Sarony. The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Picture Collection, The New York Public Library. "Cardinal Mccloskey." New York Public Library Digital Collections. Accessed June 29, 2021. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47e0-fd68-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99
[ 31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men ]info
⊠
31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men

When Johnson returned to the United States, he not only painted genre paintings but he also continued to paint portraits, which gave him a steady income. After 1880 Johnson turned to portraiture almost exclusively. During the 1880s and 1890s he painted businessmen, lawyers, university presidents, and three U.S. presidents from life. At times he also painted their wives and children.

He was also commissioned to paint posthumous portraits, often from photographs. These portraits by and large do not have the sparkle and active brushwork of those done from life. It seems that the demand for portraits of business and civic leaders (and members of exclusive men’s clubs) was so high that portrait painters would often make copies of each other’s paintings to satisfy the market for such images. In many instances, it has been difficult to render opinions for such paintings. —PH

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 31.1.131
Baur no. 85 / 1907 Sale no. 10
John McCloskey
1907 Sale title: The Cardinal
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts title: Man in Red Cloak
c.1875–85
Oil on board
11 x 8 3/8 in. (27.9 x 21.3 cm)
Initialed lower right: E.J.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Gift of Julie Bernard O'Malley and Olivia Bernard in memory of their grandmother, Sibyl Hubbard Darlington (2006.32)
Description/Remarks

MacGibeny, 2021: This painting was titled The Cardinal in the 1907 sale of Johnson's estate and subsequently has been known as Man in Red Cloak. Research and analysis suggests that the likely subject was Cardinal John McCloskey (1810–1885). McCloskey was Archbishop of New York 1864–1885 and became the first American Cardinal in 1875. The span and significance of his tenure, taking place when it did during Johnson's career, make him a likely subject for such a portrait; Johnson’s fellow artist George P. A. Healy portrayed the cardinal as well. More specifically, although Johnson's portrait is a broad sketch, the features of the sitter resemble those of McCloskey in the linked photograph by Napoleon Sarony: see the downturned nose, pronounced nasolabial folds,and marionette lines from his mouth to his chin, especially on the right side of his face.

1907 Estate Sale info
No. 10: "A study of a half-length figure in a red robe, the head in profile to the right, slightly bent forward and down. In the background is suggested a part of a yellow curtain."
"Signed at the lower right, E. J.
Height, 11 inches; width, 8 ¾ inches."
[Annotation: “30.00”]
Markings

Verso of frame, inscribed in black pen: E. Johnson     Man in a Red Cloak

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. 10 (as The Cardinal)]
Thomas Hamlin Hubbard
Sibyl Emma Hubbard (Mrs. Herbert Seymour) Darlington, La Jolla, California, his daughter, by 1940
Herbert Seymour Darlington, her husband
Sibyl Darlington Bernard and Jean Pierre Bernard, his daughter and son-in law
Olivia Bernard, their daughter
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 2006 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1937 Frazier Gallery
Frazier Gallery, New York, Eastman Johnson 1824–1906: Forerunner of Homer and Eakins, September–October 1937. (Hirschl 1937); (Frazier Gallery 1937a), no. 25, as The Cardinal.
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. 10, as The Cardinal.
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. 63, no. 85, as The Cardinal.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-06-26
Examination notes: Man profile looking down. Red cloak. Yellow and white strokes at the right. Very freely painted.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: McCloskey, John
Biography:

John McCloskey (1810–1885). Roman Catholic Archbishop of New York, 1864–1885, and first American Cardinal, 1875.

Keywords
Record last updated June 29, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "John McCloskey, c.1875–85 (Hills no. 31.1.131)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=474 (accessed on May 2, 2025).