Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné
Patricia Hills, PhD, Founder and Director | Abigael MacGibeny, MA, Project Manager
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Photo: Courtesy of Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.
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. 45.3.16
Harriet Emily Nichols Ruggles
Alternate titles: Mrs. John Gould Ruggles (Harriet Emily Nichols); Mrs. Ruggles; Study for "The Hatch Family," Mrs. Ruggles
c.1871
Charcoal and graphite heightened with white on paper
9 7/8 x 7 3/4 in. (25.1 x 19.7 cm)
Signed lower left: E.J.
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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 Emily Nichols Ruggles, c.1871 (Hills no. 45.3.16)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=953 (accessed on March 29, 2024).