The Art Lover

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The Art Lover
The Art Lover
The Art Lover
TitleThe Art Lover
Artist (American, 1824 - 1906)
Date1859
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 12 3/8 × 15 1/2 in. Framed: 22 1/4 × 25 1/4 × 4 3/8 in.
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Bequest of James A. Suydam, 1865
Object number670-P
Label TextBased on a drawing that he made while living and working in The Hague during the early 1850s, Eastman Johnson's "The Art Lover" depicts a Dutch girl's aesthetic education from a book of landscape prints. James A. Suydam's purchase of Johnson's painting after what is believed to be its first exhibition in 1859 illustrates Suydam's interest in Dutch culture and his own Dutch heritage. The subject's introspection and the composition's rich contrasts of light and dark are aspects of the Dutch visual tradition that influenced both Johnson and Suydam.
Collections
  • 19th Century Highlights from the Collection
Negro Boy
Eastman Johnson
c. 1860-1861
Sanford R. Gifford
Eastman Johnson
Ca. 1880
Self-Portrait
Eastman Johnson
c. 1859-1860
Portrait Study #2
Lester Frederick Johnson
1969
Three Women and Arches #3
Lester Frederick Johnson
1987
Southern Night
Frank Tenney Johnson
1927
Self-Portrait
David Johnson
1894
NOT FOR REPRODUCTION
David Johnson
1861
The Glass House
Philip Johnson
1949
Photo by Glenn Castellano
Philip Johnson
1949