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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: Baltimore Museum of Art
[ 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. 31.1.223
Baur no. 279
Horatio Lorenzo Whitridge
Baltimore Museum of Art title: Horatio L. Whitridge
Alternate title: Horatio L. Whittredge [incorrect]
1880
Oil on canvas
39 3/16 x 27 1/2 in. (99.5 x 69.9 cm)
Neither signed nor dated, according to the present owner, Baltimore Museum of Art; inscribed "E. Johnson 1880" according to the original owner, William H. Whitridge, son of the sitter
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, Gift of William C. Whitridge, Stevenson, Maryland (1984.277)
Description / Remarks

Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive files, Eastman Johnson, "Horatio L. Whitridge," b11494979, accessed May 18, 2021: "Brown eyes, hair, and beard. Black coat and waistcoat, brown trousers and tie, white shirt and collar. Carved table with red felt or velvet top. Brownish background."

Provenance
Horatio Lorenzo Whitridge, Baltimore
William H. Whitridge, Baltimore, his son, by 1925
Ethel Howard Whitridge (Mrs. Washington Irvine) Keyser, Stevenson, Maryland, his daughter, until 1960
Frederick Winslow Whitridge, Stevenson, Maryland
William C. Whitridge, great-grandson of the sitter
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland, 1984 (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. 72, no. 279, as Horatio L. Whittredge [incorrect].
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Whitridge, Horatio Lorenzo
Biography:

Horatio Lorenzo Whitridge (1816–1874). Baltimore shipping merchant [Frick Art Reference Library].

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. "Horatio Lorenzo Whitridge, 1880 (Hills no. 31.1.223)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=664 (accessed on May 2, 2024).