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Photo: Patricia Hills
⊠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. 31.1.214
Baur no. 273
Salem Howe Wales
Alternate title: Salem H. Wales
1882, January 12
Oil on canvas
34 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. (87.6 x 69.9 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/Jan. 12–1882 [As in other Johnson paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, the "8"s have a flat top]
Private collection, New York
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Provenance
Private collection, New York, by 2021
Exhibitions
Century Association, New York, February 4, 1882, as
Salem H. Wales.
The Union League Club of New York, New York, Exhibition of Pictures Belonging to The Union League Club, March 8, 1883. (Exhibition catalogue: Union League Club of New York 1883), no. 50, as
Salem H. Wales.
References
Catalogue of the Pictures Belonging to the Union League Club, Exhibited Thursday, March 8, 1883. New York:
Union League Club of New York,
March 8, 1883.
Exhibition catalogue (1883 Union League Club of New York), n.p., no. 50, as
Salem H. Wales, Three-quarter length. Presented to the Club in 1882.
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. 273, as
Salem H. Wales.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 1971; 2020-02-19
Examination notes: 1971: Thick impasto—very brushy. Light and dark on face.
2020-02-19: Difficult to see the painting. LR signature: E. Johnson / Jan. 12– 1882. Wears a shiny satin vest. Sharp light and dark. Cloth draped over chair at right on which his hand is draped; very painterly strokes to the fabric of the cloth.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Wales, Salem Howe
Biography: Salem H. Wales (1825–1902). Journalist, politician, and philanthropist. Editor of Scientific American.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
- Inscription type:
Record last updated April 20, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Salem Howe Wales, 1882, January 12 (Hills no. 31.1.214)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=657 (accessed on October 6, 2024).