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Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
⊠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. 31.1.43
Baur no. 173
William Barnes Cogswell
Alternate title: William B. Cogswell
1881
Oil on canvas
29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 61 cm)
Signed lower right: E. Johnson / 1881
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References
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. 67, no. 173, as
William B. Cogswell.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): May 16, 2019
Examination notes: Thinly painted faces but typical patchy strokes. Good light and shadow. Highlights on forehead, nose, cheeks and pinpricks on eyes. Line along bottom of nose. Good handling of facial hair. Partial hand visible. Collar has a line defining it. Eyeglasses folded and across vest. Also a fob?
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Cogswell, William Browne
Biography: William Browne Cogswell (1834–1921). Husband of Johnson's niece, Mary Johnson Cogswell (m. 1856). Cogswell bought a great number of Johnson’s paintings at the 1907 Estate Sale, some of which descended through the Cogswell family.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
- Portrait sitter families:
Record last updated July 22, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "William Barnes Cogswell, 1881 (Hills no. 31.1.43)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=530 (accessed on December 2, 2024).