Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, Project Manager and Co-Author
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Photo: Courtesy of Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.
37.1 U.S. Early and Euro Figure & Landscape Sketches

Johnson finished his formal schooling at fifteen and worked in a dry goods store where he began making drawings. Responding to his talent, his father sent him to work in a lithography shop in Boston, probably Bufford’s. Several figure and landscape sketches survive from the early 1840s which indicate the ways he was exploring the human figure and the landscape about him using graphite pencil. More importantly, he began to excel as a portrait draughtsman in these early years; see Themes 43.1–.9, U.S. Early Portrait Drawings.

Johnson's reason for his sojourn in Düsseldorf and The Hague, 1849–1855, was to learn to paint with oil (see Themes 1.0–5.0). To achieve that goal, he studied anatomy while still making graphite sketches of interiors, landscapes, and figures from life. Among his best composed sketches were those done on trips to the Dutch countryside, especially those done at Dongen, the Netherlands. —PH

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Hills no. 37.1.28
Baur no. 461
Sketching at Dongen
1853, July 14
Pencil on brown paper
7 x 10 1/2 in. (17.8 x 26.7 cm)
Inscribed and dated lower right: Dongen July 14. 53; verso, top center: E. J. surounded [sic] by Dutch children (self portrait)
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Record last updated March 30, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Sketching at Dongen, 1853, July 14 (Hills no. 37.1.28)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=818 (accessed on October 3, 2024).