Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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Photo: Wisconsin Historical Society
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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
Hills no. 31.3.20
Baur no. 174
Sarah Fairchild Dean
Wisconsin Historical Society Museum title: Mrs. Sarah Fairchild Conover
Alternate titles: Mrs. Sarah Fairchild Dean Conover; Sarah Fairchild Dean Conover
1856, October
Locale: Superior, Wisconsin
Oil on canvas
24 x 20 in. (61 x 50.8 cm)
Signed and dated: E. Johnson, Superior, October, 1856
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References
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. 174, as Mrs. Sarah Fairchild Dean Conover.
"News and Comment." Minnesota History Magazine 21, no. 4 (1940), p. 429: "…Mrs. Sarah Fairchild Dean, whose husband, Eliab B. Dean, was receiver of the land office at Superior. A portrait of Mrs. Dean, painted by Eastman Johnson while he was living in Superior, is reproduced with the present article".
Jensen, James F. "Nineteenth-Century American Painting and Sculpture at the State Historical Society of Wisconsin." Antiques 110, no. 5 (1976), p. 1016 "One of the most interesting and prominent families—socialy, politically, and artistically—in nineteenth-century Wisconsin was the Fairchild family of Madison. In their travels and through their extensive social connections, they met many famous American and European artists. One of the happy results of just such a chance meeting is the Society's portrait of Sarah Fairchild Dean Conover by Eastman Johnson. It was painted in 1856 when the sitter, vacationing on Lake Superior, was introduced to Johnson, who was on a sketching tour".
The Magazine Antiques (New York) 110, no. 5 (November 1976), p. 1016, color reproduction, as Sarah Fairchild Dean Conover.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Conover, Sarah Fairchild Dean (Mrs. Eliab Dean; later, Mrs. Obadiah Conover)
Biography:
Sarah Fairchild Dean Conover (1827–1912). Member of a prominent Madison Family. Sister of Civil War hero and governor Lucius Fairchild; married Eliab Dean (m. 1848). Divorced and later married professor Obadiah Conover (m. 1883).
Related work
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Conover, Sarah Fairchild Dean (Mrs. Eliab Dean; later, Mrs. Obadiah Conover)
Keywords
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- Subject matter:
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. "Sarah Fairchild Dean, 1856, October (Hills no. 31.3.20)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=725 (accessed on December 2, 2024).