Catalogue Entry
Reproduced in Sheldon Keck, “A Use of Infra-Red Photography in the Study of Technique,” Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts, 1941, p. 151
This theme presents the larger studies Johnson did for finished drawings and paintings; some of the figures are done in graphite pencil, while others are done in charcoal. Sheldon Keck, a conservator who examined many Johnson drawings and paintings, wrote the following in “A Use of Infra-Red Photography in the Study of Technique,” Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts, 1941:
Johnson's procedure, as thus reconstructed, seems to have been to prepare carefully in advance of his painting a drawing of the whole or of important parts. In this he determined as well the modelling and chiaroscuro to be used in his painting. He next traced the drawing and transferred the outline to the picture priming. He diligently followed this outline in his application of paint. The drawing of the "Girl with Glass" of which a painted version appears in "The New Bonnet" illustrates this conclusion. The measurements of the drawn and painted figures coincide and the infra-red photograph reveals the guide lines in the painting.
—PH
MacGibeny, 2022: Conservator Sheldon Keck used this drawing as an example of the way in which Johnson, who began his career as a portrait draftsman, used drawings as the basis for his paintings. In “A Use of Infra-Red Photography in the Study of Technique,” Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts, 1941, Keck writes:
“Johnson’s procedure, as thus reconstructed, seems to have been to prepare carefully in advance of his painting a drawing of the whole or of important parts. In this he determined as well the modelling and chiaroscuro to be used in his painting. He next traced the drawing and transferred the outline to the picture priming. He diligently followed this outline in his application of paint. The drawing of the ‘Girl with Glass’ (figure 5) of which a painted version appears in ‘The New Bonnet’ (figure 4) illustrates this conclusion. The measurements of the drawn and painted figures coincide and the infra-red photograph (figure 6) reveals the guide lines in the painting.”
See the linked detail of the infra-red photograph, in which some of the outlines are faintly visible (for example, around the figure's chin and collar), and the finished painting The New Bonnet.
Baur 1940, p. 35: "Sketches of cranberry pickers along the left margin. It was probably done in Nantucket."
