Catalogue Entry

[Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Fair in Aid of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, New York, April 19 or 20, 1864 [possibly, no. 213 (as The Young Sweep); given by the artist to the Fair; sold]

Possibly Joseph H. Harrison, Esq., by 1867 (as Chimney-sweep)

Possibly Silas C. Evans, by 1877

[Possibly Samuel P. Avery, New York, March 14–15, 1877, Association Hall (Y.M.C.A.), The Private Collection of Fine Oil Paintings, &c. by American and Foreign Artists, the Property of Mr. Silas C. Evans, no. 51 (as The Young Sweep), sold to J. A. Harper]

Possibly J. Abner Harper, March 14, 1877 (by purchase)

[Possibly George A. Leavitt & Co., New York, March 12–13, 1880, Chickering Hall, Mr. J. Abner Harper's Collection of Paintings, lot 92 (as The Sweep), sold to A. Myers]

Possibly A. Myers, March 13, 1880 (by purchase)

Goupil & Cie., New York, before 1884

M. Knoedler & Co., New York

William Rockefeller, New York

Peter Rudolph, Philadelphia, by fall 1992 and until May 26, 1993

[Christie's, May 26, 1993, Sale 7684, Important American Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture of the 19th & 20th Centuries, lot 35 (as The Chimney Sweep)]

Private collection, May 26, 1993 until at least 1999

U.S. Sanitary Commission, New York, Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Fair in Aid of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, April 4–23, 1864. (Exhibition catalogue: U.S. Sanitary Commission 1864), no. 213, [possibly, as The Young Sweep].

National Academy of Design, New York, Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Society of Decorative Art, 1877–78. (Exhibition catalogue: NAD 1877d), no. 175, [possibly, as The Sweep], lent by Mr. J. Abner Harper.

National Academy of Design, New York, The Private Collection of Fine Oil Paintings, &c. by American and Foreign Artists, the Property of Mr. Silas C. Evans, March 7–14, 1877. (Exhibition catalogue: NAD 1877a), no. 51, [possibly, as The Young Sweep].

Catalogue of the Art Exhibition at the Metropolitan Fair, in Aid of the U.S. Sanitary Commission. New York: U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1864. Exhibition catalogue (1864b U.S. Sanitary Commission), p. 14, no. 213 [possibly, as The Young Sweep].

A Record of the Metropolitan Fair in Aid of the United States Sanitary Commission, Held at New York, in April, 1864; With Photographs. New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1867, p. 190 [possibly, as The Young Sweep].

Tuckerman, Henry T. Book of the American Artists: American Artist Life. New York: G. P. Putnam & Son, 1867, p. 630 [possibly, as Chimney-sweep, owner J. Harrison, Esq.]

Catalogue of the Private Collection of Fine Oil Paintings—By American and Foreign Artists, the Property of Mr. Silas C. Evans. New York: Samuel P. Avery, March 14–15, 1877. Sale catalogue, p. 11, no. 51 [possibly, as The Young Sweep].

Society of Decorative Arts. Catalogue of the Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Society of Decorative Art: Consisting of Gems of the Modern, Foreign and American Schools of Painting and Rare Examples of Various Art Industries. New York: National Academy of Design, 1877. Exhibition catalogue (1877c NAD), p. 15, no. 175 [possibly, as The Sweep], lent by Mr. J. Abner Harper.

"Review of J. Abner Harper Sale." Harper’s Monthly 60 (May 1880), p. 938 [possibly]: "This piquant and interesting collection had no picture more attractive as a piece of pure sentiment than a negro boy—a sweep—by Eastman Johnson. The innocence, the characteristic beauty, the unconscious pathos, arrested the eye and mind first, and then the excellence of the execution. Finish without “niggling,” breadth, firmness, purity of tone, depth of color, an effortless and harmonious blending as in a beautiful melody—these were all obvious, and through them all shown the human tenderness which makes the whole world kin. It was not a conceit, it was a picture."

Catalogue of Paintings in Oil and Water Colors, the Private Collection of Mr. J. Abner Harper. New York: Leavitt Art Galleries, March 12–13, 1880. Sale catalogue, n.p., no. 92 [possibly, as The Sweep].

"American Art Chronicle." The American Art Review 1, no. 6 (April 1880), p. 269 [possibly, as The Sweep].

Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 142, no. 77, as The Young Sweep.

Perry, Claire. Young America: Childhood in 19th-Century Art and Culture. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006. Exhibition catalogue (2006 Cantor Center for Visual Arts), fig. 92.