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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: Free Library of Philadelphia, Print and Picture Collection
[ 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. 45.1.9
Baur no. 304
Zenas M. Coleman
Alternate title: Captain Coleman
1880
Charcoal and white chalk on tan-gray paper
12 1/8 x 9 1/8 in. (30.8 x 23.2 cm)
Initialed and dated lower right, at sitter's left shoulder: Oct. 21–80/E.J.; lower center, not in Johnson's hand: Captain Coleman
The Free Library of Philadelphia, The Rosenthal Collection of Drawings by American Artists
Description/Remarks

Hills, 2022: Portraits of figures with open mouths are rare in Johnson's oeuvre. Perhaps he included the subject's crooked teeth because they added personality to the sitter.

Provenance
Likely Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
Albert Rosenthal, New Hope, Pennsylvania, until c. 1923 (likely by purchase from Mrs. Johnson in 1915)
The Free Library of Philadelphia, The Rosenthal Collection of Drawings by American Artists, c. 1923 (by gift)
Exhibitions
1907a Century Association
Century Association, New York, Memorial Exhibition of Eastman Johnson, February 9–13, 1907, [possibly, as Captain Coleman].
1920 Kennedy Galleries
Kennedy Galleries, New York, Charcoal Drawings of Eminent Americans by Eastman Johnson, June 1920. (Exhibition catalogue: Kennedy Galleries 1920), no. 7, as Captain Coleman.
1999 Brooklyn Museum
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, New York, Eastman Johnson: Painting America, October 29, 1999–February 6, 2000. (Exhibition catalogue: Carbone and Hills 1999), no. 55, color illus., as Captain Coleman. 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
Kennedy Galleries 1920
Catalogue of an Exhibition of Charcoal Drawings by Eastman Johnson. New York: Kennedy Galleries, 1920. Exhibition catalogue (1920 Kennedy Galleries), p. 5, no. 7, as Captain Coleman.
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. 74, no. 304, as Captain Coleman.
Crosby 1944
Crosby, Everett U. Eastman Johnson at Nantucket: His Paintings and Sketches of Nantucket People and Scenes. Nantucket, MA, 1944, pp. 16, 48, C.33, as Captain Coleman.
Carbone and Hills 1999
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. 97, no. 55.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): March 29, 1971
Examination notes: Short choppy strokes in face, especially whiskers where it is appropriate.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: Coleman, Zenas M.
Biography:

Captain Zenas M. Coleman (1815–1878). Whaling ship captain. According to Michael Harrison, Nantucket Historical Association, Coleman was “the last man to command a whaling voyage from Nantucket. In 1876 he became keeper of the Quaise Asylum (poor house), where Johnson met retired sailor and rigger Robert Ratliff, likely among others.”

Related work
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Coleman, Zenas M.
Keywords
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. "Zenas M. Coleman, 1880 (Hills no. 45.1.9)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=966 (accessed on May 2, 2025).