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

Catalogue Entry

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Image Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
[ 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. 43.3.16
Frances Amelia Leonard Rathbone
Alternate title: Head of a Woman
c.1846–49
Locale: Likely Augusta, Maine or Boston, Massachusetts
Charcoal on paper
14 x 16 in. (35.6 x 40.6 cm)
Inscribed lower left, not in Johnson's hand: …of Young Woman Rosen[illegible]
Present whereabouts unknown
Description/Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: The subject of this portrait, originally known only as Head of a Woman, has been identified as Frances Leonard Rathbone based on her resemblance to a portrait of Rathbone made by Johnson during the same time period.

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
Paul David Magriel, New York, 1962
Rita and Daniel Fraad, New York, by 1972
[Sotheby's, December 1, 2004, lot 52 (as Head of a Woman)]
Unidentified buyer, December 1, 2004 (by purchase)
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1972 Whitney Museum
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, March 28–May 14, 1972. (Exhibition catalogue: Hills 1972a), no. 7, b/w illus., p. 13, as Head of a Woman, did not travel. Traveled to: The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, June 7–July 22, 1972; Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, August 15–September 30, 1972; Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, October 20–December 3, 1972.
1985 Amon Carter Museum
Amon Carter Museum, Forth Worth, Texas, American Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings from the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad, May 24–July 14, 1985, no. 1.
References
Genauer 1972
Genauer, Emily. "Realism Revisited." International Herald Tribune, April 1972.
Hills 1972a
Hills, Patricia. Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1972. Exhibition catalogue (1972 Whitney Museum), p. 13, no. 7, illus.
Ayres and Myers 1985
Ayres, Linda, and Jane Myers. American Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings from the Collection of Rita and Daniel Fraad. Forth Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1985, pp. 2–3, no. 1, illus.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): October 21, 2004
Hills opinion letter: October 23, 2004 view »
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Rathbone, Frances Leonard
Biography:

Frances Amelia Leonard Rathbone (1827–1852). Daughter of Silas Leonard of Augusta, Maine; wife of William Penn Rathbone of Providence, Rhode Island.

Rathbone, Frances Amelia Leonard
Keywords
Record last updated March 27, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Frances Amelia Leonard Rathbone, c.1846–49 (Hills no. 43.3.16)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=933 (accessed on February 2, 2026).