loading loading
Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Photo: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Public Domain (CC-PDM)
[ 40.0 Literary/Historical Drawings ]info
⊠
40.0 Literary/Historical Drawings

In addition to his scenes of everyday life and portraits of people, Johnson created images of historical events and figures from works of literature, drama, and music. For example, “Carry Me, and I’ll Drum You Through” was inspired by an incident from the Battle of Antietam, 1862, and Membership Vote at the Union League Club, May 11, 1876, recorded a contentious meeting in which he participated much later. His Marguerite, Cosette, and Minnehaha are personifications of fictional heroines from novels and poetry. His Boy Lincoln represents both the future United States president and the archetypical American youth who, with determination and hard work, could succeed. Johnson rendered several of these imaginative images as both paintings and drawings. These literary and historical works evince both his personal interest in those subjects and his awareness of their popularity with the broad public. —AM

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 40.0.10
The Field Hospital
Alternate titles: possibly The Letter; Camp Hospital at Gettysburg; The Letter Home; The Nurse
1867
Charcoal and graphite on paper
24 x 30 in. (61 x 76.2 cm) (image); 27 1/16 x 34 1/2 in. (68.7 x 87.6 cm) (sheet)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1867
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, The Julia B. Bigelow Fund (74.17)
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: Although The Nurse is the earliest published historical title of this drawing, Johnson made it in the same year as his corresponding painting, which was exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1868 as The Field Hospital. It is unlikely that he would have given the works different titles.

In the letter quoted below, Elizabeth Johnson's correspondent Mrs. Blatchford was Mary Elizabeth Williams Blatchford, the mother of Charles and Eliphalet Blatchford, who were portrayed by Johnson in 1880. Johnson also portrayed Mrs. May—his sister Harriet Johnson—several times, as well as her husband Joseph May, both mentioned in the letter.

Elizabeth Johnson letter to Mary Blatchford, dated October 27, 1909:

"I was so pleased to hear that you owned the drawing of the 'Field Hospital' as it is so charming and touching that [sic] young wounded soldier and his nurse. The muse was Mrs. May (I mean she sat for it, wife of the Rev. Joseph May of Philadelphia and Mr. Johnson’s sister). I suppose the 'Camp Hospital at Gettysburg' is the real name—& I have the pass Mr. Johnson had for following the Army for war subjects….”

Provenance
Louis Prang, New York, by 1875
[Leavitt Art Rooms, New York, December 7, 1875, Oil and Water-Color Paintings, from the Collection of Louis Prang, Esq., Boston, no. 30 (as The Nurse)]
Eliphalet Wickes Blatchford, Chicago
Paul Blatchford, Oak Park, Illinois, his son, 1921
Dorothy Lord Blatchford (Mrs. Roswell Talmage) Pettit, Ottawa, Illinois, his daughter
Dr. George Meyer, physician of Dr. Roswell Talmage Pettit, 1954
Schweitzer Gallery, New York, 1974
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, 1974 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1879c Century Association
Century Association, New York, March 1, 1879, [possibly, as The Letter].
1983 Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Made in America: 200 Years of Drawing, June 18–August 21, 1983.
1985 Minneapolis Institute of Art
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, The Sachs Years, June 1–August 4, 1985.
1999 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 82, color illus., p. 168, as The Field Hospital. Traveled to: San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, February 25–May 21, 2000; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, June 8–September 10, 2000.
References
Leavitt Art Rooms 1875
Oil and Water-Color Paintings, from the Collection of Louis Prang, Esq, Boston. New York: Leavitt Art Rooms, December 7–8, 1875. Sale catalogue, n.p., no. 30, as The Nurse (Crayon Drawing.) (Engraved by Halpin and Hunt.)
Johnson, Elizabeth 1909
Elizabeth Johnson letter to Mary Blatchford, October 27, 1909, likely Newberry Library, Modern Manuscripts Repository.
Campbell 1983
Campbell, Richard. "Minneapolis Institute of Arts: One Hundred Years of Collecting." Drawing 5 (November–December 1983).
Hills 1986
Hills, Patricia. "Eastman Johnson's The Field Hospital, the U.S. Sanitary Commission, and Women in the Civil War." The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin 65 (1981–82; published in 1986).
Lipshultz 1988
Lipshultz, Sandra LaWall. Selected Works: The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 1988, p. 204, illus., as The Letter Home.
Carbone and Hills 1999
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. 168, no. 82, illus., as The Field Hospital.
Simon 2003
Simon, David L. "Eastman Johnson's Lunchtime." Colby Quarterly 39, no. 4 (December 2003).
Related work
loading
Keywords
enlarge
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C., LC-DIG-pga-03197 (digital file from original print)
Our Women Warriors [engraving by Frederick W. Halpin and B. V. Hunt; published by L. Prang & Co.]
1870
Etching
D size (24 x 36 in.; 61 x 91.4 cm)
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (2006676680)

Also owned by: Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston (Call number: Graphics Misc–Women 10)

See all Prints after Works by Johnson.

Record last updated August 10, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "The Field Hospital, 1867 (Hills no. 40.0.10)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=866 (accessed on April 19, 2024).