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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: Harvard Law School Library, Historical & Special Collections
[ 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. 31.1.72
Baur no. 185
William Maxwell Evarts
Alternate titles: 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
c.1885
Oil on canvas (coarse canvas)
23 1/4 x 18 1/2 in. (59 x 47 cm)
Signed lower left in red: E. Johnson
Harvard Law School Library, Historical & Special Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Markings
Plaque on frame: WILLIAM M. EVARTS/BORN 18[18?] -- DIED 1901/HARVARD LAW SCHOOL 1839/FIRST PRESIDENT OF THE NEW YORK BAR ASSOCIATION/ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES/SECRETARY OF STATE UNDER PRESIDENT HAYES/HERO OF THE GREATEST LEGAL CASES OF HIS GENERATION/1824.EASTMAN JOHNSON.1906
Provenance
Newhouse Galleries, New York, by March 1933
Harvard Law School Library, Historical & Special Collections, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 24, 1933 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
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].
References
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.].
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].
Art Digest 1933
"Harvard Buys Eastman Johnson's 'Evarts.'" The Art Digest 7, no. 11 (March 1, 1933), p. 5, illus., as William 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. 185, as William M. Evarts.
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].
Saunders 2005
Saunders, Richard H. The Brook Collection. New York: The Brook, 2005, p. 52.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-09-28
Examination notes: Face is intelligent but face is dark and grey. Chin to left looks obscure. Grained painted looks like chipped granite. Dry and pocked looking. Background is dark.
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
Keywords
Record last updated August 18, 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 Maxwell Evarts, c.1885 (Hills no. 31.1.72)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=551 (accessed on April 25, 2024).