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

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy of the Frick Art Reference Library
[ 45.1 U.S. Later Portrait Drawings, Men ]info
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45.1 U.S. Later Portrait Drawings, Men

When Johnson returned from Europe late in 1855 and moved in with his family in Washington, D.C., he began receiving portrait commissions. Like those done earlier, Johnson generally used charcoal (named in some records as black chalk) with touches of white and created a strong chiaroscuro for his sitters. Gradually he moved away from the strong chiaroscuro style he had been using, and his later portraits tend to be sketchier (as was the taste in art at the time) but no less professional. He used pastel to bring in color in some of these portraits. —PH

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Hills no. 45.1.1
Baur no. 296
Edward Mortimer Archibald
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston title: Portrait of Sir Edward Archibald
Alternate title: Sir Edward Archibald
c.1880–84
Charcoal heightened with white chalk on pale green paper
21 1/8 x 14 11/16 in. (53.7 x 37.3 cm)
Inscribed lower center in graphite: Sir Edward Archibald
Gift of Maxim Karolik for the M. and M. Karolik Collection of American Watercolors and Drawings, 1800–1875 (59.114)
Description/Remarks

MacGibeny, 2022: At upper left is a light sketch of the 3/4-length figure of a seated man; he appears to be Archibald.

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
Maxim Karolik, Newport, Rhode Island, until 1959
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, February 12, 1959 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1920 Kennedy Galleries
Kennedy Galleries, New York, Charcoal Drawings of Eminent Americans by Eastman Johnson, June 1920. (Exhibition catalogue: Kennedy Galleries 1920), no. 2, as Sir Edward Archibald, British Consul General at New York.
1936 Macbeth Gallery
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Exhibition of a Private Collection of Drawings by Eastman Johnson, January 14–February 3, 1936.
1946 M. Knoedler & Co.
M. Knoedler & Co, New York, Paintings and Drawings by Eastman Johnson, January 7–26, 1946. (Exhibition catalogue: M. Knoedler & Co. 1946), no. 24, as Sir Edward Archibald. Traveled to: The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, March 1946 (California Palace 1946).
References
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 4, no. 2, as Sir Edward Archibald.
Comstock 1936
Comstock, Helen. "The Connoisseur in America: Eastman Johnson's Drawings." The Connoisseur 97 (May 1936), p. 278.
Baur 1940
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. 73, no. 296, as Sir Edward Archibald.
M. Knoedler & Co. 1946
Paintings and Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: M. Knoedler & Co., 1946. Exhibition catalogue (1946 M. Knoedler & Co.), n.p., no. 24, as Sir Edward Archibald.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Archibald, Edward Mortimer
Biography:

Sir Edward Mortimer Archibald (1810–1884). British Consul to New York, 1857–1883.

Archibald, Edward Mortimer
Keywords
Record last updated March 24, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Edward Mortimer Archibald, c.1880–84 (Hills no. 45.1.1)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=963 (accessed on May 2, 2025).