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

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy of Sturgis Library, Barnstable, MA
Ellen Sturgis Hooper, c.1848 (Hills no. 43.3.8). Detail
Detail
Photo: Courtesy of Sturgis Library, Barnstable, MA
[ 43.3 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Women ]info
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43.3 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Women

Johnson's earliest recorded portrait drawings of women are dated 1845: his portrait of Dolley Madison that indicates the setting and one of his older sister Judith which shows head and neck only. Unlike the portraits of men, his portraits of women are softer in light-dark chiaroscuro and do not exhibit the muscular structure of the face as do those of men. Johnson consolidated his draughtsman’s talents during his sojourn in Boston, where he painted Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and his circle. He took about three days to complete a charcoal portrait. The style of the time was to present portraits in oval frames. 

See Technical Information on Johnson's Practices for a discussion of charcoal, black chalk, crayon, and pastel. —PH

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Hills no. 43.3.8
Ellen Sturgis Hooper
c.1848
Locale: Likely Boston, Massachusetts area
Charcoal and white chalk on paper
36 x 24 in. (91.4 x 61 cm) (frame, oval)
Neither signed nor dated
Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Markings
Inscribed on backboard prior to reframing, in chalk: 1848
Provenance
Anne Maria Hooper (Mrs. Thornton K.) Lothrop, a Sturgis descendant
Mary Buckminster Lothrop Bundy, her great-granddaughter, until 2007
Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts, 2007 (by gift)
References
Giuliano 2017
Giuliano, Charles. "Cape Cod Museum of Art: Promoting Regional Visual Arts Since 1980." Berkshire Fine Arts, October 24, 2017.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Hooper, Ellen Sturgis
Biography:

Ellen Sturgis Hooper (1812–1848). Transcendentalist poet and daughter of Sturgis Library (Massachusetts) founder William Sturgis and Elizabeth Davis Sturgis.

Keywords
Record last updated May 6, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Ellen Sturgis Hooper, c.1848 (Hills no. 43.3.8)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=914 (accessed on July 10, 2025).