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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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Image courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
[ 44.3 Euro Portrait Drawings, Women ]info
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44.3 Euro Portrait Drawings, Women

Johnson continued drawing portraits in charcoal after he arrived in Europe. However, the currently located charcoal portrait drawings of American women friends were all executed in The Hague, and those portraits returned to the United States. Similar to the situation of the commissioned charcoal portraits of men, those works of European women remained in Europe. —PH

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Hills no. 44.3.12
Baur no. 346
Countess Van Stirrum [sic]
c.1851–55
Locale: The Hague, the Netherlands
Charcoal, soft modeled, on tan paper
24 x 19 1/2 in. (61 x 49.5 cm) (sight)
Inscribed lower right: Countess Van Stirrum/The Hague
Present whereabouts unknown
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: "Countess van Stirrum" likely is a member of the Limburg Stirum family, three other portraits of whom were made by Johnson: Otto Leopold van Limburg Stirum, his daughters Woltera Geertruida and Frederika Augusta van Limburg Stirum, and his sons Wigbold Albert Willem and Hendrik van Limburg Stirum. It is possible that the subject of this portrait is Otto's first wife and mother of their children, Aleida Hermanna Christina van der Wijck, who had died in 1849, or his second wife Susanna Sophia Ortt, whom he married in 1850.

Provenance
Likely Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
Albert Rosenthal, New Hope, Pennsylvania, until 1939 (likely by purchase from Mrs. Johnson in 1915)
Estate of Albert Rosenthal, with Albert Duveen, New York
Albert Duveen, New York, and M. Knoedler & Co., New York, February 8, 1946 (as Countess van Stirrum [sic])
M. Knoedler & Co., New York, June 27, 1956–October 17, 1979 (by purchase of Albert Duveen's 1/2 share)
Hammer Galleries, New York, October 17, 1979
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1920 Kennedy Galleries
Kennedy Galleries, New York, Charcoal Drawings of Eminent Americans by Eastman Johnson, June 1920. (Exhibition catalogue: Kennedy Galleries 1920), no. 39, as Countess Van Stirrum [sic], "Lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Holland".
1946 M. Knoedler & Co.
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Paintings and Drawings by Eastman Johnson, January 7–26, 1946. (Exhibition catalogue: M. Knoedler & Co. 1946), no. 22, as Countess Van Stirrum [sic]. Traveled to: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, March 1946 (California Palace 1946).
References
Walton 1906
Walton, William. "Eastman Johnson, Painter." Scribner's Magazine 40 (September 1906), p. 268, "In the Hague [Johnson] also executed a number of portraits, paintings and drawings--of the Countess von Stirrum [sic]…"
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 9, no. 39, as Countess Van Stirrum [sic], "Lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Holland".
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. 76, no. 346, as Countess Van Stirrum [sic].
M. Knoedler & Co. 1946
Paintings and Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1946. Exhibition catalogue (1946 M. Knoedler & Co.), n.p., no. 22, as Countess Van Stirrum [sic].
Kraan 2002
Kraan, Hans. Dreams from Holland: Foreign Artists Paint Holland, 1800–1914. The Hague: Waanders Publishers, 2002, p. 113, "[Johnson made portraits of the] leading families such as the Bentincks, the Fagels, the Van Limburg-Stirums and even of the Royal family (house)."
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): March 22, 1971
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. "Countess Van Stirrum [sic], c.1851–55 (Hills no. 44.3.12)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=928 (accessed on May 7, 2024).