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Photo: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
⊠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. 31.1.94
Baur no. 196
Joseph Wesley Harper, Jr.
Alternate titles: John [sic] Wesley Harper; Joseph Wesley Harper
c.1885–96
Oil on canvas
27 1/4 x 22 1/4 in. (69.2 x 56.5 cm)
Initialed lower left, damaged from fabric being folded over smaller stretcher: E.J.
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Exhibitions
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, December 1921. (Union League Club of New York 1921), no. 7, as
John [sic] Wesley Harper.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, 1928–31. (Philadelphia Museum of Art 1928), unnumbered, as
John [sic] Wesley Harper.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., [On loan], 1967–80.
References
Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters. New York:
Union League Club of New York,
1921.
Exhibition catalogue (1921 Union League Club of New York), n.p., no. 7, as
Joseph Wesley Harper.
Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Philadelphia:
Philadelphia Museum of Art,
1928.
Exhibition catalogue (1928 Philadelphia Museum of Art), unnumbered checklist
.
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. 196, as
Joseph Wesley Harper.
Rutledge, Anna Wells, and James W. Lane. 110 Paintings in the Clarke Collection. 1952. , p. 128
.
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, DC:
National Gallery of Art,
1970, p. 74, illus.
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, DC:
National Gallery of Art,
1980, p. 184, illus.
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, DC:
National Gallery of Art,
1992, p. 213, illus.
Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. Washington, DC:
National Gallery of Art,
1998, p. 383
.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Harper, Joseph Wesley, Jr.
Biography: Joseph Wesley Harper, Jr. (1830–1896). Columbia University, Class of 1948; Trustee of the College, 1873–1896 [Columbia University Gifts and Bequests].
Harper, Joseph Wesley, Jr.
Record last updated February 28, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Joseph Wesley Harper, Jr., c.1885–96 (Hills no. 31.1.94)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=564 (accessed on May 1, 2025).
