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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: Unknown
Pieter Stortenbeker, 1853 (Hills no. 30.1.6). Photograph of Pieter Stortenbeker
Photograph of Pieter Stortenbeker
Photo: Unknown
Pieter Stortenbeker, 1853 (Hills no. 30.1.6). Portrait of Pieter Stortenbeker, 1884 by Pieter de Josselin de Jong,
Portrait of Pieter Stortenbeker, 1884 by Pieter de Josselin de Jong,
Photo: Rijksmuseum
[ 30.1 Euro Portraits, Men ]info
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30.1 Euro Portraits, Men

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

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Hills no. 30.1.6
Pieter Stortenbeker
Alternate titles: Man with a Hat (Self-portrait); Portrait of a Man with a Hat (Self-Portrait?); Portrait of Pieter Stortenbeker; Portret van een man met hoed [Portrait of a Man with a Hat]; Portret van P. Stortenbeker [Portrait of P. Stortenbeker]
1853
Locale: The Hague, the Netherlands
Oil on canvas
27 9/16 x 21 1/4 in. (70 x 54 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/1853
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

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].

Provenance
[Valadon & co Boussot, The Hague, the Netherlands, November 15–16, 1898, Atelier P. Stortenbeker, lot no. 98 (as Portret van P. Stortenbeker [Portrait of P. Stortenbeker])]
Hendrik Willem Mesdag, The Hague, the Netherlands, 1898 (by purchase)
[Glerum Auctions, The Netherlands, June 22, 1998, lot 5 (as Portret van een man met hoed [Portrait of a Man with a Hat])]
Peter J. Clarke Fine Arts, United States, by March 1999
[Phillips, New York, May 23, 2000 (as Man with a hat [Self-portrait])]
Present whereabouts unknown
References
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. 28, fig. 20, as Portrait of a Man with a Hat (Self-Portrait?).
Guldenmond n.d.
Guldenmond, Roland. "Uit de handel. De veiling van de Pulchri Collectie [From the Trade: The Auction of the Pulchri Collection]." Jong Holland 4 (n.d.), p. 6.
Keywords
Record last updated March 30, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Pieter Stortenbeker, 1853 (Hills no. 30.1.6)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=901 (accessed on May 3, 2024).