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Photo: Reproduced in Lisa N. Peters, The Portrait Collection of New-York Presbyterian—Weill Cornell Medical Center, 2015
Verso
Photo: Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D.
Verso inscription
Photo: Lisa N. Peters, Ph.D.
⊠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. 31.1.126
William Henry Macy
Alternate title: William Henry Macy (1805–1887)
1885, March
Oil on canvas
34 x 22 in. (86.4 x 55.9 cm)
Signed and dated lower right, likely in Johnson's hand: E. Johnson / Mch 4-1885; verso of canvas, upper right, in red: Wm. H. Macy./New York./E. Johnson. Pinxt. 1885.
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Exhibitions
Attending Physicians and Surgeons of the Society of the New York Hospital, In Celebration of Its 150th Anniversary, New York Public Library, New York, Exhibition of Portraits of the Presidents, November–December 1921, no. 14
.
References
Biographical Catalogue Descriptive of the Portraits Belonging to the Society of the New York Hospital. New York:
Society of the New York Hospital,
1909.
Exhibition of Portraits of the Presidents, Attending Physicians, and Surgeons of the Society of the New York Hospital, In Celebration of Its 150th Anniversary. New York:
New York Public Library,
1921, p. 14, no. 14
.
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA,
1944, p. 18, no. C-45, as
William Henry Macy.
Peters, Lisa N. The Portrait Collection of New York—Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. New York:
Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center,
2015, p. 13, illus., as
William Henry Macy (1805–1887).
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Macy, William Henry
Biography: William Henry Macy (1805–1887). Merchant and banker. Married Eliza Leggett Jenkins (m. 1827); father of eight children.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
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. "William Henry Macy, 1885, March (Hills no. 31.1.126)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=591 (accessed on April 23, 2024).
