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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: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
[ 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. 31.1.94
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.
National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection (1947.17.63)
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906–1909 (by bequest)
Thomas B. Clarke, June 20, 1909 (by purchase)
Estate of Thomas B. Clarke
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, until January 29, 1936
The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, January 29, 1936 (by purchase)
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1921 Union League Club of New York
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.
1928 Philadelphia Museum of Art
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.
1967 National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., [On loan], 1967–80.
References
Union League Club of New York 1921
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.
Philadelphia Museum of Art 1928
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 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. 196, as Joseph Wesley Harper.
Rutledge and Lane 1952
Rutledge, Anna Wells, and James W. Lane. 110 Paintings in the Clarke Collection. 1952. Unpublished typescript in the National Gallery of Art Department of Curatorial records, p. 128.
National Gallery of Art 1970
American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1970, p. 74, illus.
National Gallery of Art 1980
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1980, p. 184, illus.
National Gallery of Art 1992
American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1992, p. 213, illus.
Kelly 1998
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.
Keywords
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)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=564 (accessed on April 25, 2024).