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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: Detroit Institute of Arts
[ 30.1 Euro Portraits, Men ]info
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30.1 Euro Portraits, Men

Johnson went to Europe in 1849 to learn techniques for creating figure paintings in oil. However, he had been a professional portrait draughtsman in Boston and Washington, D.C. for at least five years before that. In those early drawings he had a keen sense of creating heads using light tones and shadowed areas to create a strong three-dimensional effect. Studying the works of Rembrandt at The Hague inspired him to use the same techniques for his oil portraits. —PH

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Hills no. 30.1.10
Worthington Whittredge
Alternate title: possibly Whitredge, landscape painter
1854, February
Locale: Düsseldorf, Germany
Oil on canvas
37 x 26 1/4 in. (94 x 66.7 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/Dusseldorf/Feb 1854.
Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, Dexter M. Ferry, Jr. Fund (60.83)
Description / Remarks

Detroit Institute of Arts object record, date unknown: "Half-length portrait of a man with a beard and moustache dressed in black. The body is turned but the face is frontal. His right hand rests on his hip. The background is dark."

Provenance
Worthington Whittredge
Euphemia Whittredge or Mary Whittredge Katzenbach, his daughter (by descent)
Wildenstein and Company, New York, 1959
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, 1960 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 13, b/w illus., p. 20, as Worthington Whittredge. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.
References
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 12, addendum “Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as Whitredge, landscape painter].
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 20. DIA info sheet: Sweeney, J.G, Themes in American Painting, Grand Rapids Art Museum, Oct. 1-Nov. 30, 1977, no. 57, p. 121 illus.; cat. no. 13, p. 20 illus.; p. 17, 20. Hills 1977, 43, fig. 27, 203.
Sweeney 1977
Sweeney, J. Gray. Themes in American Painting. Grand Rapid, MI: Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1977. Exhibition catalogue (1977 Grand Rapids Art Museum), no. 57, p. 121 illus.
Hills 1997
Hills, Patricia. "Bio on Eastman Johnson and his paintings Worthington Whittredge, Self-Portrait, In the Fields, Catherine Butler Dusenberry (Mrs. Allan Shelden)." In American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Vol. II: Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1847, introduction by Nancy Rivard Shaw. New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with the Detroit Institute of Arts Founders Society, 1997.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): c. 1972
Examination notes: Excellent
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Whittredge, Thomas Worthington
Biography:

Thomas Worthington Whittredge (1820–1910). American landscape painter and friend of Johnson. Studied at the Düsseldorf Academy, 1849–1854, and remained in Europe until 1859. Posed for both George Washington and the steersman in Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware.

Whittredge, Worthington
Keywords
Record last updated July 23, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Worthington Whittredge, 1854, February (Hills no. 30.1.10)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=665 (accessed on April 25, 2024).