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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy of the Nantucket Atheneum
Frederick Coleman Sanford, 1878 (Hills no. 26.6.18). Verso
Verso
Photo: Courtesy of the Nantucket Atheneum
[ 26.6 Nantucket Portraits and Types ]info
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26.6 Nantucket Portraits and Types

Like many artists in the nineteenth century, Johnson often did paintings of “types” that are actually identifiable portraits. For example, the painting John F. Sylvia shows a Nantucket miller in his barn looking up from his account books to look out the window. Called at one time The Falling Market, the subject suggests a man perhaps assessing his position in the economy in the early years of the 1870s when a recession gripped the nation. —PH

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Hills no. 26.6.18
Baur no. 257
Frederick Coleman Sanford
Alternate titles: Frederick C. Sanford; Mr. Frederick Sanford
1878
Locale: Nantucket, Massachusetts
Oil on canvas
40 x 27 in. (101.6 x 68.6 cm) (sight)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/1878
Nantucket Atheneum, Nantucket, Massachusetts, Gift of Frederick Coleman Sanford (OP.24.1821)
Description/Remarks

Nantucket Atheneum catalog worksheet, date unknown: "3/4 length portrait of a man; wearing dark overcoat, black coat and vest, cravat, white high-collared shirt; gold chain visible from coat to vest, circular pendant on end; grey hair, receding hairline; grey beard, no moustache; dark green to brown neutral background."

Provenance
Frederick Coleman Sanford, the sitter, until 1896
Nantucket Atheneum, Nantucket, Massachusetts, 1896 (by gift)
References
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. 257, as Mr. Frederick Sanford.
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, pp. 17, 54, no. C.40, as Frederick C. Sanford.
Inquirer and Mirror 1950
"Fifty Famous Nantucketers." Inquirer and Mirror (April 29, 1950).
Di Curcio 1982
Di Curcio, Robert A. Art on Nantucket: The History of Painting on Nantucket Island. Nantucket, MA: Nantucket Historical Association, 1982, pp. 6, 15, illus.
Nantucket Atheneum 1986
Atheneum Trustee Meeting. April 27, 1986.
Lane 1996
Lane, Jennifer. "State of the Arts: Art at the Atheneum." Nantucket Map & Legend, 1996.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1997-06-13
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Sanford, Frederick Coleman
Biography:

Frederick Coleman Sanford (1809–1890). One of Nantucket’s great businessmen and benefactors. At various times a whaleman, merchant, and marine trader [Nantucket Atheneum info sheet, provided July 9, 2015]. Went to California during the 1949 Gold Rush and at that time worked as agent for ships in New York, amassing a fortune. Also helped sell the ship Great Republic in England. Son of Giles Sanford, Jr. and Peggy (Coleman). Married Mary Allen [Atheneum Catalog Worksheet].

Keywords
Record last updated July 18, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Frederick Coleman Sanford, 1878 (Hills no. 26.6.18)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=632 (accessed on May 2, 2025).