During the 1860s Johnson painted Black men, women, and children that bestow on them dignity, intelligence, and grace. Many in his family, including his sister Harriet May and her husband Reverend Joseph May were ardent abolitionists. To Johnson, Blacks were not subjects to be ridiculed or satirized. —PH
MacGibeny, 2021: The subject is Rose Ward. According to the November 8, 1887 American Art Galleries sale catalogue description for the related drawing The Ring of Freedom, "She was rechristened Rose Ward, after Miss Terry and Henry Ward Beecher."
This image was reproduced on a Hallmark greeting card for Christmas, 1952.
The card included the following message:
Christmas Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year
Mr. and Mrs. Edward Stedman
(Personalized sample)
(Text Courtesy of the Hallmark Archives, Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri)
A discussion of this painting can be found in Patricia Hills, "Painting Race: Eastman Johnson's Pictures of Slaves, Ex-Slaves, and Freedmen" (1999). See Text References for more information.
American Art Association sale catalogue, 1914: "In the picture a small, bewildered girl is seated on a small rug on the floor, near an open chest which stands against the wall, and looks wistfully and pensively at a ring so large that it has been placed on the first finger of her right hand. She has a mass of brown hair and wears a dark striped skirt and waist and a bright red sacque or cape."
Baur 1940, p. 39: "According to an account in the New York Times, 'It is the picture of 'Little Pinky,' the slave child of a white father whom Henry Ward Beecher sold into freedom in his church one February day in 1860. This was to keep the child, a pretty girl, from being sold by her owner into the South. It was an emotional scene, tears fell fast from the eyes of the members of the congregation as they gave their money, and Mr. Beecher, taking a valuable ring from the contributions in the basket, Rose Terry Cooke's gift to the cause, he placed it on the child's finger, saying: 'With this ring I do thee wed to freedom.' Later he had Eastman Johnson make a picture of the child sitting on the floor before an open chest gazing at the ring."
1996-11: Scumbled background. Signature seems OK; floor boards OK. Highlights on stool. Pencil or graphite on nose, eyes, mouth, strands of hair. Soft hair—pale brown highlights—not nappy. Green cloth on stool. Chest behind with red and white cloth. Coral pink jacket. Dress has red and black stripes; skirt is grey-green and red.
But middle tones all filled in. [Not Johnson’s usual method.]
Three spots of paint loss.
- Portrait pose:
- Subject matter: