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Photo: Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
Seth Low portrait in Johnson's studio (on floor leaning against larger unframed portrait of seated male)
Photo: Reproduced in William Walton, "Eastman Johnson, Painter," Scribner's Magazine, September 1906
⊠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. 31.1.122
Baur no. 223
Seth Low
Alternate title: possibly Hon. Seth Low
c.1890
Oil
27 x 22 in. (68.6 x 55.9 cm)
Signed lower right: E. Johnson; initialed lower right: E. J.
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Exhibitions
The Union League Club of New York, New York, January 13–28, 1937, no. 25, [possibly, as
The Honorable Seth Low]
.
References
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
Hon. Seth Low]
.
An Exhibition of American paintings from the Chester Dale Collection. New York:
Union League Club of New York,
1937, no. 25, [possibly, as
The Honorable Seth Low]
.
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. 223, as
Seth Low.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Low, Seth
Biography: Seth Low (1850–1916). Educator and political leader. Twice mayor of Brooklyn. President of Columbia College, 1890–1901, where he started the university library. Delegate to the Hague Peace Conference, 1899, and mayor of New York City, 1902–1903.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
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Record last updated July 26, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Seth Low, c.1890 (Hills no. 31.1.122)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=588 (accessed on November 6, 2024).