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

Catalogue Entry

enlarge
Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago
[ 43.3 U.S. Early Portrait Drawings, Women ]info
⊠
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

View all works in this theme »

Hills no. 43.3.2r
Baur no. 317
Judith Farnum Chandler
Art Institute of Chicago title: Portrait of Mrs. Jeremiah Chandler
Alternate titles: Mrs. Alexander Hamilton [incorrect]; Mrs. Jeremiah Chandler
c.1847–49
Locale: Likely Gorham, Maine
Pencil heightened with white on cream-colored paper
8 1/2 x 6 3/8 in. (21.6 x 16.2 cm) (irreg.)
Inscribed lower right in graphite, not in Johnson's hand: E Johnson 77
The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection (2013.953)
Verso: Wilhelmina Frederika Anna Elisabeth Marie, c.1855–74 (Hills no. 45.3.19v)
Markings
Verso: upper left: U3-7; lower center, not in Johnson's hand: Mrs. Alexander Hamilton; lower left: A580; lower right: WCA 2441

Hills, 2022: The drawing was not signed on the front when I examined it in 1971, and "E Johnson 77" had been added by the time I examined it again in 1991.
Provenance
Associated American Artists, New York, until April 7, 1937
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (founding collection), April 7, 1937–1950 (by purchase; deaccessioned)
[M. Knoedler & Co., New York, February 28, 1960–February 1, 1980]
[Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, February 1, 1980]
Eddy G. Nicholson, Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, by December 1991
Christie's, January 27, 1995, lot 802, The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eddy Nicholson; bought in
[Christie's, March 5, 2003, lot 94 (as Portrait of Mrs. Jeremiah Chandler)]
Dorothy Braude Edinburg, March 5, 2003–2013 (by purchase)
The Art Institute of Chicago, 2013 (by gift)
References
Baur 1940
Baur, John I. H. An American Genre Painter: Eastman Johnson, 1824–1906. Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 1940. Exhibition catalogue (1939 Brooklyn Museum), p. 74, no. 317, as Mrs. Jeremiah Chandler.
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): March 22, 1971; December 10, 1991; September 17, 1994
Examination notes: March 22, 1971: White on eyes, highlights of nose, bonnet. Note glasses above ribbon.
September 17, 1994: Drawing on verso: partial face—outline of woman’s hair, brows, and eyes. Wonderful drawing—soft shadows, harder pencil along edge of ruffled hat. Hard pencil along eyeglasses.
Hills opinion letter: December 10, 1991 view »
Hills opinion letter: September 28, 1994 view »
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Chandler, Judith Farnum (Mrs. Jeremiah Chandler)
Biography:

Judith Farnum Chandler (1764–1851). Johnson’s maternal grandmother; mother of Mary Kimball Chandler.

Related work
loading
Chandler, Judith Farnum (Mrs. Jeremiah Chandler)
Keywords
Record last updated May 10, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Judith Farnum Chandler, c.1847–49 (Hills no. 43.3.2r)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=919 (accessed on April 30, 2024).