Catalogue Entry
⊠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
View all works in this theme »
Hills no. 31.1.121
Seth Low
Columbia University, Avery Library, Art Properties title: Portrait of Seth Low (1850–1916)
c.1890
Oil on canvas
27 1/8 x 22 in. (68.9 x 55.9 cm)
Signed lower right: E. Johnson
Provenance
Columbia University, New York (likely commissioned by the Trustees)
Exhibitions
1937b Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, January 13–28, 1937, no. 25, [possibly, as
The Honorable Seth Low]
.1986 Museum of the Borough of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College
Museum of the Borough of Brooklyn at Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, New York, Now Reposing in Greenwood Cemetery, April 9–May 20, 1986.
References
Kennedy Galleries 1920
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]
.Union League Club of New York 1937
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]
.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971-06-04
Examination notes: Black academic gown. Coarse canvas, pink face, moustache. Profile. Not an especially distinguished portrait.
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–.
Related work
loading
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. "Seth Low, c.1890 (Hills no. 31.1.121)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=590 (accessed on April 26, 2024).
