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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: Private collection
Harriet Amelia Sanger Pullman, 1881 (Hills no. 31.3.47). Reproduction of drawing by James D. Smillie of Johnson's oil portrait of Harriet Amelia Sanger Pullman in Illustrated Art Notes upon the Fifty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, 1882
Reproduction of drawing by James D. Smillie of Johnson's oil portrait of Harriet Amelia Sanger Pullman in Illustrated Art Notes upon the Fifty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, 1882
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. 31.3.47
Baur no. 250
Harriet Amelia Sanger Pullman
Alternate titles: possibly Full-length Portrait of a Lady; possibly Mrs. George M. Pullman, of Chicago; Mrs. George M. Pullman; Portrait of a Lady
1881
Oil on canvas
41 3/4 x 28 in. (106 x 71.1 cm)
Signed and dated: E. Johnson 1881 [not visible in 2021]
Private collection
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: The illustration of this painting in the 1882 National Academy of Design exhibition catalogue includes more of the chair and the sitter's legs, suggesting that the painting may have been cut down at some point, as was another Johnson portrait of the same sitter. This could explain the absence of an inscription today. Baur 1940 records the inscription "E. Johnson 1881"; Baur's source for this information is not known. The fact that he did not note the location of the inscription suggests it is likely he did not see the inscription himself.

Illustrated Art Notes upon the Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, 1882: "Lady seated in chair with furs thrown over its back. Dress of an ashen or mauve color. Background, an olive-red."

Provenance
George Mortimer Pullman, by 1882
Harriet Elizabeth Lowden (Mrs. Albert F., Jr.) Madlener, Oregon, Illinois, his granddaughter, by 1940
Private collection (by descent)
Private collection (by descent)
Exhibitions
1882 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, March 27–May 13, 1882. (Exhibition catalogue: NAD 1882), no. 173, as Portrait of a Lady, owner Geo. M. Pullman.
1882b Century Association
Century Association, New York, March 4, 1882, [possibly, as Full-length Portrait of a Lady].
1901 Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1901, no. 179, [possibly, as Mrs. George M. Pullman].
References
NAD 1882
Illustrated Art Notes upon the Fifty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York: With Reproductions of 135 of the Principal Pictures; 120 of Them Being Photo-Engraved from Sketches by the Artists Themselves. New York: National Academy of Design, 1882. Exhibition catalogue (1882 NAD), pp. 37, 38, no. 173, illus., as Portrait of a Lady, 28 x 48, owner Geo. M. Pullman.
The Art Amateur 1882
"The National Academy Exhibition." The Art Amateur (New York) 6, no. 6 (May 1882), p. 117 [possibly]: "Mr. Eastman Johnson's color-blindness torments us in such a portrait as No. 173, and its want of vitality no less, but he recovers himself somewhat in No. 210 [Portrait of a Gentleman, unidentified], where character-reading alone is in question and color not called for."
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. 71, no. 250, as Mrs. George M. Pullman.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Pullman, Harriet ("Hattie") Sanger (Mrs. George Mortimer Pullman)
Biography:

Harriet Sanger Pullman (1842–1921). Married George Mortimer Pullman in 1866. “Philanthropist and collector, she continued to add to the G M Pullman collection after his death in 1897” [Frick Art Reference Library].

Pullman, Harriet ("Hattie") Amelia Sanger (Mrs. George Mortimer Pullman)
Keywords
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Photo: Reproduced in Illustrated Art Notes upon the Fifty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, 1882, p. 38
Portrait of a Lady [Harriet Amelia Sanger Pullman] [photoengraving from drawing by James D. Smillie]
1882
Photoengraving
[dimensions unknown]
Present whereabouts unknown

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Record last updated June 29, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Harriet Amelia Sanger Pullman, 1881 (Hills no. 31.3.47)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=754 (accessed on March 28, 2024).