Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné

Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art

[ 31.3 U.S. Portraits, Women ]

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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. 31.3.53

Baur no. 262

Catharine Dusenbury Shelden

Philadelphia Museum of Art title: Portrait of Mrs. Allan Shelden

Alternate titles: Mrs. Allan Shelden; Portrait of a Lady

c.1885

Oil on canvas

36 1/4 x 30 1/8 in. (92.1 x 76.5 cm)

Initialed lower left: E.J.

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, The Alex Simpson, Jr. Collection, 1928 (1928-63-7)

Provenance

Private collection (George Kriehn, agent), by August 1925

Alex Simpson, Jr., August 1925

Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, 1928

Exhibitions

1939 Brooklyn Museum

Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906, January 18, 1939–February 26, 1940. (Exhibition catalogue: Baur 1940), no. 262, as Mrs. Allan Shelden.

1940 Harrisburg Art Association

Harrisburg Art Association, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 1940.

References

American Magazine of Art 1929

"Philadelphia Water Color Club Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition." American Magazine of Art (New York) (January 1929), as Portrait of a Lady.

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), pp. 55, 72, no. 262, as Mrs. Allan Shelden.

Scott, Dugan, and Paschetto 1994

Scott, Curtis R., Owen Hess Dugan, and John Paschetto, eds. Paintings from Europe and the Americas in the Philadelphia Museum of Art: A Concise Catalogue. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1994, p. 286.6

Hills Examination/Opinion

Examination date(s): 1984-11-29; Hills saw?

Sitter Biography

Sitter: Shelden, Catharine Butler Dusenbury

Biography:

Catharine Butler Dusenbury Shelden (1830–1916). Wife of Henry D. Shelden.

Related work

Shelden, Catharine Butler Dusenbury

Keywords

Portrait pose:
- Portrait »
- Seated »
- Three-quarter length »

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. "Catharine Dusenbury Shelden, c.1885 (Hills no. 31.3.53)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=760 (accessed on May 2, 2025).