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

Catalogue Entry

[ 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. 43.3.21
Baur no. 348
Miss Ward
1848
Locale: Boston, Massachusetts
Charcoal and chalk on wove paper
13 1/4 x 11 1/4 in. (33.7 x 28.6 cm)
Initialed, dated, and inscribed lower left: E.J. Miss Ward/Boston 1848
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, Museum purchase (1936.44)
Provenance
William Macbeth, Inc., until 1936
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1936 (by purchase)
Exhibitions
1980b Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Heads, November 7–December 7, 1980.
1981 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Heads II: Heads: An Exhibit which Explores Some of the Many Ways the Human Head…, September 18–October 25, 1981.
1995 Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Eastman Johnson, September 5–October 15, 1995.
2001b Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Identity and Intention: Two Centuries of American Portraiture, September 4–December 30, 2001.
n.d. Addison Gallery of American Art
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts, Drawings by American Artists, dates unknown.
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. 76, no. 348, as Miss Ward.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): October 28, 1970
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Ward, Miss
Biography:

Miss Ward (life dates unknown).

Keywords
Record last updated March 28, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Miss Ward, 1848 (Hills no. 43.3.21)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=929 (accessed on May 2, 2025).