Some of Johnson’s most memorable paintings were his small scale compositions of family groups. Such works as these, traditionally called “conversation pieces,” trace their pedigree to England and seventeenth-century Holland. They were commissioned group portraits of wealthy patrons as they wanted to be seen, usually surrounded by sumptuous furnishing and a coterie of family and friends. —PH
MacGibeny, 2021: Marcotte furniture, noted in the Hirschl & Adler exhibition catalogue description of this painting, is also featured in Johnson's 1876 portrait Frederick Wells Gale, set in the parlor of Gale's home in Troy, New York.
Hirschl & Adler, Faces and Places: Changing Images of 19th Century America, 1972: "In this conversation piece, James Brown, a prominent banker and shipping magnate of his day, is seated with his wife Eliza Coe Brown, and their grandchild, William Adams Brown, in the parlor of their University Place home. That parlor was designed by the famous cabinet maker and decorator Leon Marcotte after 1846 and was dismantled in 1869 when the Brown family moved uptown to Park Avenue. A Mathew Brady photograph of the late 1850s showing Mrs. Brown in the same pose as in this picture may have been used by Johnson in working out the composition of this painting."
James Brown. Prominent banker and shipping magnate. Seated in the parlor (designed by famous cabinet maker and decorator Leon Marcotte) of his University Place home with his wife Eliza Coe Brown and their grandchild, William Adams Brown. They would later move uptown to Park Avenue. A photograph from the 1850s of Mrs. Brown in this same pose may have been used by Johnson to work out the composition [Hirschl & Adler, Faces and Places: Changing Images of 19th Century America, 1972].
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