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

Catalogue Entry

[ 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. 45.1.10
Baur no. 305
Frederic James De Peyster
Alternate titles: Fred de Peyster; Frederick [sic] De Peyster; Frederick [sic] J. De Peyster
c.1888
Charcoal and white chalk on gray paper
17 x 12 in. (43.2 x 30.5 cm) (sight)
Neither signed nor dated
Present whereabouts unknown
Labels
Label on verso: 24 x 18 [possibly frame size]
Provenance
Likely Eastman Johnson estate/Mrs. Eastman Johnson, New York, 1906 (by bequest)
Albert Rosenthal, New Hope, Pennsylvania, by 1923 (likely by purchase from Mrs. Johnson in 1915)
Estate of Albert Rosenthal, with Albert Duveen, New York, by 1940
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1920 Kennedy Galleries
Kennedy Galleries, New York, Charcoal Drawings of Eminent Americans by Eastman Johnson, June 1920. (Exhibition catalogue: Kennedy Galleries 1920), no. 8, as Frederick [sic] De Peyster.
1936 Macbeth Gallery
Macbeth Gallery, New York, Exhibition of a Private Collection of Drawings by Eastman Johnson, January 14–February 3, 1936.
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. 8, as Frederick [sic] De Peyster.
Bolton 1923
Bolton, Theodore. Early American Portrait Draughtsmen in Crayon. New York: F. F. Sherman, 1923, p. 39, no. 4.
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. 74, no. 305, as Frederick [sic] J. De Peyster.
Hills Examination/Opinion
Examination date(s): March 30, 1971
Examination notes: Strange eyes. His right eye is lower than his left. Odd owl-like left eye. See Kennedy cat. for bio.
Sitter Biography
Sitter: De Peyster, Frederic James
Biography:

Frederic James De Peyster (1839–1905). New York City lawyer and philanthropist. Son of Captain James Ferguson De Peyster and Frances Goodhue Ashton; married Augusta McEvers Morris (m. 1871); father of Helen Van Cortland, Frederic Ashton, Francis Goodhue, Augusta Morris and Ella Morris [New York Times, May 12, 1905, p. 9].

White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.

De Peyster, Frederic James
Keywords
Record last updated June 30, 2024. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. "Frederic James De Peyster, c.1888 (Hills no. 45.1.10)." In Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=969 (accessed on May 2, 2025).