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Photo: © President and Fellows of Harvard College
⊠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. 31.1.63
Baur no. 181
Wilder Dwight
Alternate titles: Lieutenant Colonel Wilder Dwight; Lt. Col. Wilder Dwight (1833–1862); Wilder Dwight (1833–1862)
1863
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm) (approx.)
Inscribed verso in paint: Painted by Eastman Johnson in 1863 [the hand of the inscription is unknown]
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Provenance
By descent through the family of the sitter
References
Brown, William Garrott. A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Library,
1898, p. 16
.
Huntsinger, Laura M. Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University. Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Press,
1936, pp. 49–50
.
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. 181, as
Lieutenant Colonel Wilder Dwight.
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY:
Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications,
1999.
Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 57
.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 2010-07-28
Examination notes: Note graphite on white collar and side of face. Nice massing of lights and darks. Good portrait.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Dwight, Wilder
Biography: Wilder Dwight (1833–1862). Lieutenant Colonel when he died in battle at Antietam in Maryland at the age of twenty-nine.
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Keywords
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Record last updated July 29, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Wilder Dwight, 1863 (Hills no. 31.1.63)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=546 (accessed on December 2, 2024).
