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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: Reproduced by permission
[ 31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men ]info
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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. 31.1.71
Baur no. 184
William Maxwell Evarts
Alternate titles: likely M. [sic] Evarts [sic]; likely Portrait of Hon. Wm. M. Evarts; likely William M. Evarts, Esq.; possibly Hon. William M. Evarts; possibly Portrait of William M. Evarts; possibly Portrait of Wm. M. Evarts, Esq.; possibly W. M. Evarts; William M. Evarts
1885
Oil on canvas
51 1/2 x 39 1/2 in. (130.8 x 100.3 cm)
Signed and dated lower right in red: E. Johnson/1885
Private collection, New York
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
The Union League Club of New York, 1909 (by purchase from Mrs. Johnson)
Private collection, New York, by 2021
Exhibitions
1885a Century Association
Century Association, New York, January 10, 1885, [likely, as M. [sic] Evarts].
1885 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, April 6–May 16, 1885. (NAD 1885), no. 452, [possibly, as Portrait of Hon. Wm. M. Evarts].
1891a Century Association
Century Association, New York, January 10, 1891, [possibly, as William M. Evarts].
1899 PAFA
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Spring 1899, no. 314, [possibly, as Hon. William M. Evarts].
1901 Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1901, no. 178, [possibly, as Portrait of William M. Evarts].
1901 Society of American Artists
Society of American Artists, New York, March 13–May 4, 1901. (Society of American Artists 1901), no. 325, [possibly, as Portrait of Wm. M. Evarts, Esq.].
1901a Century Association
Century Association, New York, March 2, 1901, [possibly, as William M. Evarts].
1904a Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, An Exhibition of Portraits, March 10–12, 1904, no. 24, [likely, as William M. Evarts, Esq.].
1989 National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., Portraits of the American Law, October 13, 1989–January 15, 1990. (National Portrait Gallery 1989).
References
NAD 1885
New York: National Academy of Design, 1885. Exhibition catalogue (1885 NAD), no. 452 [possibly, as Portrait of Hon. Wm. M. Evarts].
Society of American Artists 1901
Catalogue of the Twenty-Third Exhibition. New York: Society of American Artists, 1901. Exhibition catalogue (1901 Society of American Artists), p. 55, no. 325 [possibly, as Portrait of Wm. M. Evarts, Esq.].
Union League Club of New York 1910
The Union League Club of New York. Report of the Committee on Art. New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1910, p. 84: "The portrait of the late Hon. William M. Evarts, who was President of this Club from 1882 to 1885, and painted by Eastman Johnson several years ago, has been on exhibition here with a view to its becoming the property of the Club, and after due inspection by your Committee, which made recommendation on December 8th that this be purchased, it now has authority from the Executive Committee, after duly conferring with Mrs. Eastman Johnson, to buy the painting, at the agreed price of $1000.00."
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 W. M. Evarts].
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. 68, no. 184, as William M. Evarts.
National Portrait Gallery 1989
Portraits of the American Law. Washington, DC: National Portrait Gallery, 1989. Exhibition catalogue (1989 National Portrait Gallery), p. 99.
Douglass 1999
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, pp. 264–66 [possibly].
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971; 2020-02-19
Examination notes: 1971: Looking to left. Dark suit. Brown background. Good Van Dyck hand. Craggy face. Intelligent (like George C. Scott). Large elaborate frame. Very good portrait.

2020-02-19: Difficult to see the painting (lower frame was 10 feet above the floor). Could not see a signature. Figure has panache; really interesting. Face painted in Johnson’s ruddy style.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Evarts, William Maxwell
Biography:

William Maxwell Evarts (1818–1901). Prominent lawyer and orator who also served as Attorney General of the United States under President Andrew Johnson, 1868–1869; U.S. Secretary of State, 1877–1881; U.S. Senator to New York, 1885–1891 [Rains Galleries auction catalogue, 1936].

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

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Evarts, William Maxwell
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Record last updated April 20, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "William Maxwell Evarts, 1885 (Hills no. 31.1.71)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=550 (accessed on May 8, 2024).