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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author

Catalogue Entry

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Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell, c.1878 (Hills no. 31.3.16). Overall
Overall
Photo: Patricia Hills
Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell, c.1878 (Hills no. 31.3.16). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell, c.1878 (Hills no. 31.3.16). Detail
Detail
Photo: Patricia Hills
Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell, c.1878 (Hills no. 31.3.16). Verso
Verso
Photo: Patricia Hills
[ 31.3 U.S. Portraits, Women ]info
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31.3 U.S. Portraits, Women

Johnson’s paintings of women are often his best portraits, exhibiting a range of techniques and emphasizing their intelligent faces even when enwrapped in sumptuous fabrics, such as we see in Edwina Booth. —PH

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Hills no. 31.3.16
Baur no. 172
Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell
Alternate title: possibly Portrait of a Lady
c.1878
Oil on fine canvas
23 1/2 x 20 1/4 in. (59.7 x 51.4 cm)
Signed lower left: Eastman Johnson [according to Baur 1940; not visible during Hills examination, 2019]
Private collection, New Jersey
Provenance
Mabel Cogswell, daughter of the sitter (who was the artist's cousin)
Cordelia Button (Mrs. L. B.) Morse, her daughter, by 1940
Ronald Cogswell Morse (her son) and Nancy Morse, East Windsor, New Jersey
Private collection, New Jersey
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. 67, no. 172, as Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): 2019-11-02
Examination notes: Outline on ear, side of face, pink lips, collar. White lace collar and black lacy scarf. Fluffy sky background. Highlight dots on both eyes. Soft hair.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Cogswell, Mary Naomi Johnson
Biography:

Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell (1832–1877). Johnson's niece; daughter of Reuben Johnson and Judith Hall Chandler Johnson; first wife of William Barnes Cogswell (m. 1856), collector of Johnson works; mother of Mabel Cogswell; sister of William Moody Kimball’s wife, Lucy Jane Johnson Kimball. Namesake for private collector Harold Lieberman’s wife.

Keywords
Record last updated November 22, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Mary Naomi Johnson Cogswell, c.1878 (Hills no. 31.3.16)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=722 (accessed on May 2, 2025).