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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: Lafayette College Art Collection, Easton, Pennsylvania
Grover Cleveland, c.1891 (Hills no. 31.1.37). Inscription
Inscription
Photo: Lafayette College Art Collection, Easton, PA
Grover Cleveland, c.1891 (Hills no. 31.1.37). Verso labels
Verso labels
Photo: Lafayette College Art Collection, Easton, PA
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

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Hills no. 31.1.37
Grover Cleveland
Lafayette Art Galleries & Art Collections, Lafayette College title: Portrait of Grover Cleveland
Alternate title: President Grover Cleveland
c.1891
Oil on canvas
20 7/8 x 18 1/8 in. (53 x 46 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2021: Affixed on the verso of the stretcher is the description of a Johnson portrait of Grover Cleveland from the catalogue of the 1937 American Art Association sale of property belonging to the Late Cornelius J. Sullivan. Although the description generally matches the appearance of this painting, a different version of this portrait—owned by the Princeton University Art Museum—is actually the one that was included in the sale, an identification supported by the sale catalogue illustration.

Labels
Labels on verso of stretcher: D 2095; Eastman Johnson, N.A./American: 1824 - 1906/208. PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND/ Head and shoulders portrait with head turned slightly and glancing to the right; in brown coat and tie; lighter brown background. Signed at lower left, E. JOHNSON, and dated 1891./Height, 21 inches; width, 17 inches/Note: The above portrait was painted from life, and is said to be the only known portrait of Grover Cleveland from life other than those in the possession of [paper is cut or folded here]
Provenance
Likely Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
Albert Rosenthal, New Hope, Pennsylvania, until 1939 (likely by purchase from Mrs. Johnson in 1915)
Estate of Albert Rosenthal, 1939
[Albert Duveen, New York]
Victor D. Spark, New York, until 1957
Wildenstein and Company, New York, 1957
Lafayette Art Galleries & Art Collections, Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, 1957 (by purchase)
References
Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), p. 273.
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 11, addendum "Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as Grover Cleveland].
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Cleveland, Stephen Grover
Biography:

Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837–1908). Twenty-second president of the United States, 1885–1889, and twenty-fourth president of the United States, 1893–1897.

White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.

Related work
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Cleveland, Stephen Grover
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Keywords
Record last updated March 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. "Grover Cleveland, c.1891 (Hills no. 31.1.37)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=527 (accessed on March 28, 2024).