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Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Brigham Young University Museum of Art
[ 31.4 U.S. Portraits, Women, Unidentified ]info
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31.4 U.S. Portraits, Women, Unidentified

The identities of the women in these portraits have not yet been confirmed. However, the paintings are known or believed to have been done in the United States based on factors including their style, inscribed dates, and the appearance of the sitters when images are available. Johnson painted the vast majority of his oil portraits after he returned to the United States from Europe in 1855. —AM

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Hills no. 31.4.9
Baur no. 291 [likely]
Unidentified Woman, possibly of the Stone Family
Brigham Young University Museum of Art title: Portrait of Mrs. Adelbert Barnes Stone [incorrect]
Alternate titles: likely Spanish Lady; likely Spanish Lady (Unfinished); possibly Mrs. A. P. Stone; Mrs. A. B. Stone
c.1878–88
Oil on paper on board
31 3/8 x 21 in. (79.7 x 53.3 cm)
Initialed lower right: E.J.
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, Utah, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Claude R. Thomas (820017600)
Description/Remarks

MacGibeny, 2021: Although this painting has been titled in the art market as Portrait of Mrs. Adelbert Barnes Stone, that identity is incorrect and the sitter's actual identity currently is unknown. Adelbert Barnes Stone, said but currently not proven to have been portrayed posthumously by Johnson, died at age 20, unmarried. Given the resemblance of the sitter's head, costume, and pose to those in Johnson's portrait of Adelbert's aunt, Mary Amelia Boomer Stone (Mrs. Andros Boyden Stone), it seems possible that this sitter could be one of her daughters: the twins Arabella Johnson Stone and Isabella Graham Stone, born in 1848.

Labels
Verso of canvas: two Brigham Young University identification labels; Do Not Remove label; three small tags with numbers; X6, Johnson,E., and Mrs. A.B. Stone 31X19 written in black marker
Provenance
Likely Albert Rosenthal, New Hope, Pennsylvania, by 1939
Private collection, by January 1972
[Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, September 28, 1973, Sale 3548, 18th, 19th, and 20th Century American Painting, Drawings, Watercolors, and Sculpture, lot 6 (as Portrait of Mrs. Adelbert Barnes Stone)]
Dr. and Mrs. Claude R. Thomas, until 1974
Brigham Young University Museum of Art, Provo, Utah, 1974 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1972 Hirschl & Adler
Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, Faces and Places: Changing Images of Nineteenth-Century America, December 5, 1972–January 6, 1973, no. 56, illus., as Portrait of Mrs. Adelbert Barnes Stone [incorrect].
References
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 12, addendum “Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as Mrs. A. P. Stone or Spanish 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), p. 73, no. 291 [likely, as Spanish Lady (Unfinished)].
Hirschl & Adler Galleries 1972
Hirschl & Adler Galleries. Faces and Places: Changing Images of 19th Century America. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1972, n.p., no. 56, as Portrait of Mrs. Adelbert Barnes Stone [incorrect].
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. "Unidentified Woman, possibly of the Stone Family, c.1878–88 (Hills no. 31.4.9)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=762 (accessed on May 2, 2025).