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Photo: Reproduced in Catalogue of Portraits in the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, 1924
⊠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. 31.1.197
Baur no. 263
Francis Skiddy
1887
Oil on canvas
27 x 22 in. (68.6 x 55.9 cm)
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References
Wilson, George, ed. Portrait Gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New-York: Catalogue and Biographical Sketches. New York:
Press of the Chamber of Commerce,
1890, no. 50, as
Francis Skiddy.
Catalogue of Portraits in the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. New York:
New York Chamber of Commerce,
1924, p. 33, no. 89, as
Francis Skiddy.
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. 72, no. 263, as
Francis Skiddy.
Kusserow, Karl. Picturing Power: Portraiture and Its Uses in the New York Chamber of Commerce. New York:
Columbia University Press,
2013, p. 287, no. 89
.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Skiddy, Francis
Biography: Francis Skiddy (1811–1879). Sugar broker also involved in finance. Educated in Paris.
Catalogue of Portraits in the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. New York: New York Chamber of Commerce, 1924.
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
- Posthumous:
Record last updated September 14, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Francis Skiddy, 1887 (Hills no. 31.1.197)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=637 (accessed on May 1, 2025).
