⊠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
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Hills no. 45.3.9
Harriet Charles Johnson
Alternate title: Portrait of Harriet Charles Johnson
1864
Crayon and chalk on paper
16 x 12 in. (40.6 x 30.5 cm)
Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson/Christmas/1864
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Provenance
Private collection, Concord, Massachusetts, by May 1, 1974
Exhibitions
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 32, color illus., as
Portrait of Harriet Charles Johnson. Traveled to: San Diego Museum of Fine Arts, San Diego, February 25–May 21, 2000; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, June 8–September 10, 2000.
References
Carbone, Teresa A., and Patricia Hills. Eastman Johnson: Painting America. Brooklyn, NY:
Brooklyn Museum of Art, in association with Rizzoli International Publications,
1999.
Exhibition catalogue (1999 Brooklyn Museum), p. 64, no. 32, illus., as
Portrait of Harriet Charles Johnson.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Johnson, Harriet Charles (Mrs. Joseph May)
Biography: Harriet Charles Johnson (1833–1881). Sister of Johnson; wife of Joseph May (m. 1865).
Keywords
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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. "Harriet Charles Johnson, 1864 (Hills no. 45.3.9)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=947 (accessed on April 24, 2024).