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Photo: Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
⊠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. 43.3.18
Baur no. 369
Elizabeth Marsten Davis Sturgis
Alternate titles: A Woman; Head of a Lady; Portrait of a Woman
c.1848
Charcoal heightened with white on brown paper
9 1/4 x 7 1/4 in. (23.5 x 18.4 cm)
Inscribed on verso: Eastman Johnson
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Exhibitions
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Paintings and Drawings by Eastman Johnson, January 7–26, 1946. (Exhibition catalogue: M. Knoedler & Co. 1946), no. 14, as
A Woman. Traveled to: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, March 1946 (California Palace 1946).
References
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. 77, no. 369, as
Head of a Lady.
Paintings and Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York:
M. Knoedler & Co.,
1946.
Exhibition catalogue (1946 M. Knoedler & Co.), n.p., no. 14, as
A Woman.
Sturgis, Elizabeth Marston Davis
Keywords
- Portrait pose:
- Portrait sitter families:
- Subject matter:
Record last updated April 3, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Elizabeth Marsten Davis Sturgis, c.1848 (Hills no. 43.3.18)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=958 (accessed on October 12, 2024).
