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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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© 2015 Christie’s Images Limited
[ 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. 31.1.211
Baur no. 271
William Henry Vanderbilt
Alternate titles: Portrait of William H. Vanderbilt, 1887; William H. Vanderbilt
1887
Oil on canvas
30 x 25 in. (76.2 x 63.5 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson 1887
Private collection
Labels
Plate on frame: WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT/EASTMAN JOHNSON/Presented to the Chamber of Commerce/—by his son Cornelius Vanderbilt—/—1887—
Provenance
Cornelius Vanderbilt II, son of the sitter
Chamber of Commerce, State of New York (by gift)
Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., New York, 1983
Credit Suisse, New York, upon acquisition of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., 2000
[Christie's, September 24, 2015, American Furniture and Outsider and Folk Art, lot 77 (as Portrait of William H. Vanderbilt, 1887)]
Private collection, September 24, 2015 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1887b Century Association
Century Association, New York, February 5, 1887, [possibly, as William H. Vanderbilt].
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as William H. Vanderbilt].
References
Wilson 1890
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. 78.
New York Chamber of Commerce 1924
Catalogue of Portraits in the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. New York: New York Chamber of Commerce, 1924, p. 31, no. 81, as William H. Vanderbilt.
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), no. 271, as William H. Vanderbilt.
Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 264, 266 [possibly, as William H. Vanderbilt].
Kusserow 2013
Kusserow, Karl. Picturing Power: Portraiture and Its Uses in the New York Chamber of Commerce. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013, p. 159, fig. 92 and p. 290, fig. 148 (framed); pp. 158, 159, 161, 287, 290, 301.
Christie's 2015
Important American Furniture, Outsider, and Folk Art: Including Carousel Art from the Collection of Larry & Gail Freels and Property from the Wunsch Collection. New York: Christie's, September 24, 2015. Sale catalogue, lot 77, as Portrait of William H. Vanderbilt, 1887.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Vanderbilt, William Henry
Biography:

William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885). Financier. “He extended the Vanderbilt system of railroads, and made large gifts to the College of Physicians and Surgeons (New York), the Metropolitan Museum, etc.” [Century Cyclopedia of Names, 1911]. Eldest of four sons of Cornelius and Sophia (Johnson) Vanderbilt. “He had continuing interest in the [Vanderbilt] University which his father had founded, providing funds for three new buildings for the campus in 1880” [Tennessee Portrait Project website].

White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.

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Vanderbilt, William Henry
Keywords
Record last updated December 9, 2022. 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 Vanderbilt, 1887 (Hills no. 31.1.211)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=652 (accessed on May 5, 2024).