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

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy of Princeton University Art Museum
James McCosh, 1883 (Hills no. 31.1.132). Frame
Frame
Photo: Abigael MacGibeny
James McCosh, 1883 (Hills no. 31.1.132). Overall
Overall
Photo: Patricia Hills
James McCosh, 1883 (Hills no. 31.1.132). Inscription
Inscription
Photo: Abigael MacGibeny
31.1 U.S. Portraits, Men

When Johnson returned to the United States, he not only painted genre paintings but he also continued to paint portraits, which gave him a steady income. After 1880 Johnson turned to portraiture almost exclusively. During the 1880s and 1890s he painted businessmen, lawyers, university presidents, and three U.S. presidents from life. At times he also painted their wives and children.

He was also commissioned to paint posthumous portraits, often from photographs. These portraits by and large do not have the sparkle and active brushwork of those done from life. It seems that the demand for portraits of business and civic leaders (and members of exclusive men’s clubs) was so high that portrait painters would often make copies of each other’s paintings to satisfy the market for such images. In many instances, it has been difficult to render opinions for such paintings. —PH

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Hills no. 31.1.132
Baur no. 229
James McCosh
Princeton University title: James McCosh (1811–1894)
Alternate titles: possibly Dr. McCosh; possibly Dr. N. Cosh [sic—mistranscribed]; possibly Portrait of Dr. McCosh; possibly Portrait of the Late Rev. Dr. McCosh, Pres. Princeton College; possibly Portrait of the Rev. Dr. M'Cosh; possibly Rev. Dr. James McCosh; The Reverend Dr. James McCosh
1883
Oil on canvas
26 5/8 x 21 5/8 in. (67.6 x 54.9 cm) (sight)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson/1883 [As in other Johnson paintings of the 1880s and 1890s, the date has a flat top]
Description / Remarks

Princeton inventory card: "Head and bust; bust frontal, head turned slightly to proper left. Dark suit, clerical collar; gray hair and sideburns."

Provenance
Possibly Alexander Maitland, New York, son-in-law of the sitter, by 1884 until at least 1893
David Magie, son-in-law of the sitter
James McCosh Magie, his son, by 1940
Elsie Stevenson (Mrs. James McCosh) Magie
Estate of Elsie Stevenson (Mrs. James McCosh) Magie
Princeton University Art Museum, New Jersey, 1983 (by bequest)
Exhibitions
1883a Century Association
Century Association, New York, February 3, 1883, [possibly, as Dr. McCosh].
1883c Century Association
Century Association, New York, April 7, 1883, [possibly, as Dr. McCosh].
1884 NAD
National Academy of Design, New York, April 7–May 17, 1884. (NAD 1884), no. 259, [possibly, as Dr. McCosh, lent by Alex Maitland].
1893 Columbian Exposition
World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, May 1–October 31, 1893. (World's Columbian Exposition 1893), no. 784, [possibly, as Portrait of Dr. McCosh, lent by Alex. Maitland, New York].
1900a Union League Club of New York
The Union League Club of New York, New York, American Paintings, January 11–13, 1900, no. 2, [possibly, as Portrait of the Late Rev. Dr. McCosh, Pres. Princeton College].
References
Philadelphia Inquirer 1882
"Personal and Political." The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 16, 1882, p. 4: "Eastman Johnson is painting portraits of Presidents Porter, of Yale, and McCosh, of Princeton".
Art Union 1884
"The National Academy Exhibition." The Art Union 1, no. 4 (April 1884), p. 80 [possibly, as Portrait of the Rev. Dr. M'Cosh].
NAD 1884
New York: National Academy of Design, 1884. Exhibition catalogue (1884 NAD), no. 259 [possibly, as Dr. McCosh].
World's Columbian Exposition 1893
World's Columbian Exposition. Revised Catalogue, Department of Fine Arts. Chicago: W. B. Gonkey Company, 1893. Exhibition catalogue (1893 Columbian Exposition), p. 58, no. 784 [possibly, as Portrait of Dr. McCosh].
Beckwith 1906
Beckwith, Carroll. "Eastman Johnson—His Life and Works." Scribner's Magazine 40, no. 2 (August 1906), [possibly].
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 11, addendum "Paintings by Eastman Johnson" [possibly, as Rev. Dr. James McCosh].
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. 70, no. 229, as The Reverend Dr. James McCosh.
Rosasco 1996
Rosasco, Betsy. "The Teaching of Art and the Museum Tradition: Joseph Henry to Allan Marquand." An Art Museum for Princeton: The Early Years. Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 55, nos. 1 and 2 (1996), p. 15, fig. 7.
Douglass 1999
Douglass, Julie M. "Lifetime Exhibition History." In Eastman Johnson: Painting America, by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999. Exhibition catalogue, pp. 263, 265 [possibly].
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): 2019-05-29
Examination notes: Looks good as a portrait. Note that EJ used end of paint brush on some passages.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: McCosh, James
Biography:

Reverend Doctor James McCosh (1811–1894). Philosopher and president of Princeton University, 1868–1888. Ordained as a minister in the Church of Scotland then became a professor in logic and metaphysics at Queen’s College, Belfast, before becoming president of Princeton. Under his leadership, enrollment and faculty increased, standards of scholarship were raised, and buildings enlarged.

White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.

McCosh, James
Keywords
Record last updated August 9, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "James McCosh, 1883 (Hills no. 31.1.132)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=880 (accessed on March 29, 2024).