⊠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. 31.1.45
Baur no. 176a
John Call Dalton
Columbia University, Avery Library, Art Properties title: Portrait of John Call Dalton (1825–1889)
Alternate titles: Dr. J. C. Dalton; Portrait of Dr. J. C. Dalton, President of College of Physicians and Surgeons
1886
Oil on canvas
45 x 34 in. (114.3 x 86.4 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/1886 [As in other Johnson paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, the "8"s have a flat top]
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Markings
Plate on frame: Painted by Eastman Johnson, 1885
Exhibitions
Century Association, New York, March 6, 1886, as
Dr. J. C. Dalton.
National Academy of Design, New York, April 5–May 15, 1886. (NAD 1886), no. 515, as
Portrait of Dr. J. C. Dalton, President of College of Physicians and Surgeons, owner College of P. & S.
Century Association, New York, Exhibition of Portraits Owned by Columbia University, March 16–31, 1908.
References
New York:
National Academy of Design,
1886.
Exhibition catalogue (1886 NAD), p. 70, no. 515, as
Portrait of Dr. J. C. Dalton, President of College of Physicians and Surgeons.
An Official Guide to Columbia University. New York:
Columbia University Press,
1912, p. 109
.
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. 68, no. 176a, as
John Call Dalton.
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, p. 264
.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Dalton, John Call
Biography: John Call Dalton (1825–1889). America’s first professional physiologist. Served as a surgeon in the Civil War. Prominent lecturer and writer in the medical field.
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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. "John Call Dalton, 1886 (Hills no. 31.1.45)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=534 (accessed on December 2, 2024).