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

Catalogue Entry

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Photo: Courtesy of Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York
09.3 Black Children and Adolescents

During the 1860s Johnson painted Black men, women, and children that bestow on them dignity, intelligence, and grace. Many in his family, including his sister Harriet May and her husband Reverend Joseph May were ardent abolitionists. To Johnson, Blacks were not subjects to be ridiculed or satirized. —PH

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Hills no. 9.3.9
"I'se dot three"
Alternate titles: Girl with Eggs; I'se dot three; Robbing the Nest
1879
Oil on board
10 1/2 x 6 1/4 in. (26.7 x 15.9 cm)
Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson./~79
Description / Remarks

MacGibeny, 2021: I'se dot three was not pictured in the illustrated catalogue of the 1881 Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition, the only exhibition in which this title was used. However, Hills had surmised that the title's use of dialect suggested that this painting may be of a Black subject; and Johnson's only known Black subject done late in his career is the painting previously identified as Robbing the Nest, pictured here, in which the Black girl holds three eggs. It is unlikely that Johnson assigned the title himself.

Provenance
Henry H. Porter, Chicago, by 1881
James Bennett, until 1964
Wildenstein and Company, New York, 1964 (as Girl with Eggs)
Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence A. Fleischman, Detroit, December 1964 (by purchase)
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York, until November 1966 (as Robbing the Nest)
Private collection, November 1966 (by purchase)
Present whereabouts unknown
Exhibitions
1881 Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition
Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition, Chicago, 1881. (Exhibition catalogue: Chicago Inter-State 1881), no. 437, as "I'se dot three".
References
Chicago Inter-State 1881
Illustrated Catalogue of the Art Hall of the Inter-State Industrial Exposition of Chicago. Chicago: Rand, McNally, & Co., 1881. Exhibition catalogue (1881 Chicago Inter-State Industrial Exposition), p. 69, no. 437, as "I'se dot three".
Kennedy Quarterly 1966
The Kennedy Quarterly 6, no. 3 (October 1966), p. 181, no. 170, as Robbing the Nest.
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Keywords
Record last updated March 22, 2022. Please note that the information on this and all pages is periodically reviewed and subject to change.
Citation: Hills, Patricia, and Abigael MacGibeny. ""I'se dot three", 1879 (Hills no. 9.3.9)." Eastman Johnson Catalogue Raisonné. www.eastmanjohnson.org/catalogue/entry.php?id=97 (accessed on March 28, 2024).