Johnson went to Europe in 1849 to learn techniques for creating figure paintings in oil. However, he had been a professional portrait draughtsman in Boston and Washington, D.C. for at least five years before that. In those early drawings he had a keen sense of creating heads using light tones and shadowed areas to create a strong three-dimensional effect. Studying the works of Rembrandt at The Hague inspired him to use the same techniques for his oil portraits. —PH
MacGibeny, 2021: The sitter was not named in earlier sales of this portrait; however, more recently, he has been identified as Pieter Stortenbeker. See the linked images including a photograph of Stortenbeker and a portrait made from the photograph by Pieter de Josselin de Jong, 1884 (Rijksmuseum).
Guldenmond, Uit de handel. De veiling van de Pulchri Collectie [From the trade. The auction of the Pulchri Collection], n.d.: "Although a lot of the works did look good, there were appallingly damaged ones. (…) a man's portrait by Eastman Johnson showed big holes, cracks and scrapes that you really wouldn't pay a penny for it. But others apparently have a different opinion about this and somebody took it for 10,000" [translated from Dutch].
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