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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: Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
[ 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. 31.1.172
Baur no. 244
John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn
Alternate titles: possibly John V. S. Lansing Pruyn; J. V. L. Pruyn; John V. L. Pruyn; John V. L. Pruyn (1811–1877)
c.1883
Oil on canvas
11 x 9 1/4 in. (27.9 x 23.5 cm)
Initialed lower left: E.J.
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site (PM.1972.41)
Provenance
Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
Alexander Smith Cochran, c. 1912–1918 until 1929 (by purchase)
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1929 (by bequest)
New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site, Yonkers, New York, 1972 (by transfer)
References
ASHPS 1917
American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. Twenty-Second Annual Report of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, 1917. Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company, Printers, 1917, p. 119, no. 41, as J. V. L. Pruyn.
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 12, addendum “Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as John V. S. Lansing Pruyn].
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. 71, no. 244, as John V. L. Pruyn.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Pruyn, John Van Schaick Lansing
Biography:

John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn (June 22, 1811–November 21, 1877). U.S. Representative from New York and Chancellor of the University of the State of New York Board of Regents, 1868–1877.

Pruyn, John Van Schaick Lansing
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. "John Van Schaick Lansing Pruyn, c.1883 (Hills no. 31.1.172)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=620 (accessed on May 7, 2024).