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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: Valerie Elbrick Hanlon
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. 31.1.110
Baur no. 217
Reuben Chandler Johnson
c.1856–58
Oil on canvas (highly varnished)
23 3/4 x 20 in. (60.3 x 50.8 cm)
Neither signed nor dated
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2021: In his last will and testament, dated December 22, 1905, Eastman Johnson specified that this painting should be inherited by his sister: "I give and bequeath to my sister Mary K. Johnson my life size portrait of my uncle Carter Chandler, also my portrait of my brother Reuben, also the sum of Two thousand dollars ($2,000)." Mary Kimball Johnson died in 1910, which could explain why the painting would have been given to Johnson's nephew, Alfred W. Johnson, directly by the artist's wife as described in the inscription on the verso.

Markings
Labels on verso: Reuben[?] Chandler Johnson/Born Lovell, Me. 1819/Died Jersey City 1885/Painted by his brother/Eastman Johnson 1853-58; This portrait was presented to Alfred W. Johnson US Navy - the artist's nephew - by Mrs. E. Johnson about 1909
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
Mary Kimball Johnson, sister of the artist, 1906 (by bequest)
Alfred Wilkinson Johnson, the artist's nephew (son of the artist's brother Philip Carriqan Johnson, Jr.), c. 1909 (by gift from Mrs. Johnson)
Private collection, Washington, D.C., by 1971 (by descent)
Valerie Elbrick Hanlon, Gilbertsville, New York, by April 2017 (by descent)
References
Johnson 1905
Johnson, Eastman. Last will and testament. New York, December 22, 1905, "Second: I give and bequeath to my sister Mary K. Johnson my life size portrait of my uncle Carter Chandler, also my portrait of my brother Reuben, also the sum of Two thousand dollars ($2,000)."
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. 69, no. 217, as Reuben Chandler Johnson.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-05
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Johnson, Reuben Chandler
Biography:

Reuben Chandler Johnson (1819–1884). Brother of Eastman Johnson. Married Caroline Alexander (m. 1851). Executor of father’s estate.

Keywords
Record last updated March 27, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Reuben Chandler Johnson, c.1856–58 (Hills no. 31.1.110)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=577 (accessed on March 29, 2024).