Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
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45.3 U.S. Later Portrait Drawings, Women
When Johnson returned from Europe late in 1855 and moved in with his family in Washington, D.C., he began receiving portrait commissions. On his trip to Superior, Michigan, in 1856 and 1857, he did charcoal portrait drawings of family and friends. Like the commissioned drawings done earlier, Johnson generally used charcoal (named in some records as black chalk) with touches of white, but the strong chiaroscuro is less evident for his women sitters. Many of these portraits are in pastel, which creates a softer visage. In his later professional years as a painter of oil portraits there are few portraits of women. His art commanded high prices; perhaps families were then reluctant to include their women members as portrait sitters. —PH
Hills no. 45.3.11
Emily Augusta Green Blackwell Livingston
Alternate titles: Portrait of Emily Augusta Green Blackwell Livingston; The Widow Blackwell
1887–91
Pastel on paper mounted on linen
24 x 18 in. (61 x 45.7 cm)
Initialed lower left in script: E.J.
loading
Markings
Label on verso: From the/ALBA…. ERY" [Albany…Gallery]
Provenance
Private collection, by 2003 (by descent)
Hills Examination / Opinion
Examination date(s): August 13, 2003
Examination notes: Definite eyebrows. Coral pink in corners of eyes. Nice highlights on eyes. Filtrum indefinite. Light line of top lips. Light peach cross-hatching on lower lip and under the lip. Freely painted ruffle in white crayon. Slight abrasion on top of nose – but infilling.
Hills opinion letter: December 19, 2003 view »
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
Record last updated August 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. "Emily Augusta Green Blackwell Livingston, 1887–91 (Hills no. 45.3.11)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=938 (accessed on April 26, 2024).