loading 
Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Catalogue Entry
enlarge
© 2002 Christie’s Images Limited
⊠
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
Hills no. 31.3.18
Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling
Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University title: Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling (Mrs. Alfred Ronald Conkling)
Alternate titles: possibly Mrs. Conkling; Mrs. Alfred R. Conkling; Portrait of Mrs. Alfred R. Conkling
1898
Locale: New York
Oil on canvas
58 1/2 x 40 in. (148.6 x 101.6 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1898
Markings
Label on verso: Eastman Johnson/Portrait of Mrs. AR Conkling/65 W 55th(?) St.
Provenance
Alfred Ronalds Conkling, husband of the sitter, by 1898
By descent in the family of the artist
James Graham & Sons, New York
Christie's, May 23, 2001, lot 33 (as Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling); did not sell
[Christie's, July 17, 2002, lot 73 (as Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling)]
Fred Bentley, Sr., by 2009
Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw State University, Kennesaw, Georgia, 2009 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1898 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, Loan Exhibition of Portraits for the Benefit of the Orthopaedic Hospital, December 14, 1898–January 14, 1899. (NAD 1898), no. 145, as Mrs. Alfred R. Conkling.2018 Zuckerman Museum of Art
Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia, Class Pictures, August 25–December 21, 2018, as Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling (Mrs. Alfred Ronald Conkling).References
NAD 1898
Loan Exhibition of Portraits for the Benefit of the Orthopaedic Hospital. New York: National Academy of Design, 1898. Exhibition catalogue (1898 NAD), p. 29, no. 145, as Mrs. Alfred R. Conkling.French 1906
French, Edgar. "An American Portrait Painter of Three Historical Epochs." World's Work 13, no. 2 (December 1906), pp. 8307-23, illus. p. 8319, as Portrait of Mrs. Alfred R. Conkling.Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 11, addendum "Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as Mrs. Conkling].Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2001-03-15
Examination notes: Coarse canvas. Graphite lines on chin, along upper lip. Scumbling around eye—good. Maybe red-brown middle tones added? Cascading green print drape at left. Lace in front—scumbling makes it look right. Pointed finger—another pentimento under. Rip U.L.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Conkling, Ethel Eastman Johnson
Biography:
Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling (1870–1931). Daughter of Johnson. Married Alfred Ronalds Conkling (m. 1896); after Conkling died, married William H. Holden (m. 1922) and settled abroad. Mother of three daughters, only one of whom had her own children. Ethel was Johnson’s frequent model in his genre scenes of children.
Conkling, Ethel Eastman Johnson (Mrs. Alfred Ronald Conkling, later Mrs. William H. Holden)
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
- Portrait sitter families:
Record last updated August 25, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling, 1898 (Hills no. 31.3.18)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=723 (accessed on May 6, 2024).