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

Catalogue Entry

[ 31.7 U.S. Portraits, Groups ]info
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31.7 U.S. Portraits, Groups

Some of Johnson’s most memorable paintings were his small scale compositions of family groups. Such works as these, traditionally called “conversation pieces,” trace their pedigree to England and seventeenth-century Holland. They were commissioned group portraits of wealthy patrons as they wanted to be seen, usually surrounded by sumptuous furnishing and a coterie of family and friends. —PH

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Hills no. 31.7.8
William Watson Caswell and John Caswell
Alternate title: Portrait of William Watson Caswell and John Caswell of Prides Crossing, MA
1878
Oil on canvas
63 1/2 x 46 1/2 in. (161.3 x 118.1 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/1878
Present whereabouts unknown
Provenance
William Watson Caswell, Jr.
Mrs. Sumner Pingree, Charleston, South Carolina, his daughter
[Carl W. Stinson, Inc. Auctioneers & Appraisers, Reading, Massachusetts, January 17, 2010, lot 1059 (as Portrait of William Watson Caswell and John Caswell of Prides Crossing, MA)]
Unidentified buyer, January 17, 2010 (by purchase)
Present whereabouts unknown
References
Antiques and the Arts Weekly 2010
"Estate Material Draws SRO Crowd To Carl W. Stinson Auction." Antiques and the Arts Weekly (Newtown, Conn.), February 16, 2010.
Maine Antique Digest 2010
References painting Portrait of William Watson Caswell and John Caswell of Prides Crossing, MA, offered for sale by Carl W. Stinson, Inc. Auctioneers & Appraisers, Reading, Massachusetts, on January 17, 2010. Maine Antiques Digest (2010).
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Caswell, William Watson (brother of John Caswell)
Biography:

William Watson Caswell (1874–1939). Brother of John Caswell, with whom he was portrayed by Johnson. “The Caswell home was located at 140 Hart Street in Prides Crossing, adjacent to the Eleonora Sears estate” [Carl W. Stinson, Inc. Auctioneers & Appraisers].

Sitter: Caswell, John (brother of William Watson Caswell)
Biography:

John Caswell (life dates unknown). Brother of William Watson Caswell, with whom he was portrayed by Johnson.

Caswell, John
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Keywords
Record last updated July 23, 2021. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "William Watson Caswell and John Caswell, 1878 (Hills no. 31.7.8)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=910 (accessed on May 7, 2024).