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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: Smithsonian American Art Museum, Open Access
Elizabeth Williams Buckley Johnson, c.1888 (Hills no. 31.3.37). Original painting reproduced in Hartmann,
Original painting reproduced in Hartmann, "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter," 1908
Photo: Reproduced in Sadakichi Hartmann, "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter," 1908
[ 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. 31.3.37
Elizabeth Williams Buckley Johnson
Smithsonian American Art Museum title: Portrait of Mrs. Eastman Johnson
Alternate titles: possibly Portrait of a Lady; Elizabeth Buckley Johnson; Study of an Artist's Wife; Study of the Artist's Wife
c.1888
Oil on canvas
31 3/8 x 22 7/8 in. (79.7 x 58.1 cm)
Initialed lower left: E.J.
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Daniel Cowin (1972.169)
Description / Remarks

Hills, 2021: The painting owned by the Smithsonian American Art Museum must have been cut from the larger painting reproduced in Sadakichi Hartmann, "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter," 1908.

MacGibeny, 2021: According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the museum received the painting in this condition, and has no historical record of its alteration.

Eastman Johnson married Elizabeth Williams Buckley of Troy, New York, in 1869. Their daughter, Ethel, was born in 1870.

Library of Congress, United States Copyright Office, copyright notice no. 8046, 1907: "Lady seated, her right arm and hand thrown over the arm of the chair, left hand pressed against cheek."

Markings
Inscribed on verso, on stretcher, upside down in upper left in pencil: Cowin
Provenance
Daniel Cowin, until 1972
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C., 1972 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, as Study of an Artist's Wife.
2004 Cantor Center for Visual Arts
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University, Stanford, California, Women on the Verge: The Culture of Neurasthenia in 19th Century America, October 20, 2004–February 6, 2005.
References
Library of Congress Copyright Office 1907
Library of Congress Copyright Office. Catalogue of Copyright Entries, Part 4: Engravings, Cuts, and Prints; Chromos and Lithographs; Photographs; Fine Arts; New Series. Volume 2, nos. 1–52, January–December, 1907. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1907, p. 223, no. 8046, as Study of the Artist's Wife, copyright notice issued to Mrs. Eastman Johnson. "Lady seated, her right arm and hand thrown over the arm of the chair, left hand pressed against cheek," Class I, no. 20711, Feb. 6, 1907. One photograph received February 6, 1907.
New York Times 1907a
"Eastman Johnson's Paintings Shown: Genre Pictures of the Old School at the Century." New York Times, February 11, 1907, p. 9: "The finest and boldest in brushwork is one of Mrs. Eastman Johnson, almost like a Ribera in its powerful light and shade."
Hartmann 1908
Hartmann, Sadakichi. "Eastman Johnson: American Genre Painter." The International Studio 34 (April 1908), pp. 110, 111, illus.
National Museum of American Art 1983
National Museum of American Art. Descriptive Catalogue of Painting and Sculpture in the National Museum of American Art. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1983.
Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, p. 266, as Study of an Artist's Wife.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 1998-03-10
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Johnson, Elizabeth Williams Buckley (Mrs. Eastman Johnson)
Biography:

Elizabeth Williams Buckley Johnson (1838–1927). Born in Troy, New York to Phineas Henry Buckley (1800–1866) and Phebe McCoun (1803–1838). Wife of Johnson (m. 1869); mother of Ethel Eastman Johnson Conkling.

Johnson, Elizabeth Williams Buckley (Mrs. Eastman Johnson)
Keywords
Record last updated March 22, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Elizabeth Williams Buckley Johnson, c.1888 (Hills no. 31.3.37)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=742 (accessed on May 6, 2024).