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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: © President and Fellows of Harvard College
[ 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. 31.1.116
Baur no. 220
Amos Adams Lawrence
Alternate title: Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1886)
1887
Oil on canvas
53 x 36 7/8 in. (134.6 x 93.7 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1887 [As in other Johnson paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, the date has a flat top]
Harvard University Portrait Collection, Gift of friends of Amos Lawrence to Harvard University (H190)
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: It is unusual for Johnson to portray an adult in a winter landscape.

Labels
Brass plate on frame: AMOS ADAMS LAWRENCE/1814–1886/BY E. JOHNSON/GIFT TO HARVARD UNIVERSITY BY/FRIENDS OF MR. LAWRENCE
Provenance
The Harvard Corporation, c. 1887 (by commission)
References
Brown 1898
Brown, William Garrott. A List of Portraits in the Various Buildings of Harvard University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Library, 1898, p. 26.
Huntsinger 1936
Huntsinger, Laura M. Harvard Portraits: A Catalogue of Portrait Paintings at Harvard University. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936, p. 85.
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. 70, no. 220, as Amos Adams Lawrence.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Lawrence, Amos Adams
Biography:

Amos Adams Lawrence (1814–1896).

Keywords
Record last updated July 29, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Amos Adams Lawrence, 1887 (Hills no. 31.1.116)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=583 (accessed on May 10, 2024).