TitleSanford R. Gifford
Artist
Eastman Johnson
(American, 1824 - 1906)
DateCa. 1880
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 26 5/8 × 22 1/4 in.
Framed: 35 3/8 × 30 1/2 × 3 1/4 in.
SignedSigned at lower left: "E. J."
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, Gift of Mrs. Eastman Johnson, 1907
Object number672-P
Label TextJohnson was a close friend of Sanford Gifford, and painted at least two other portraits of him, both of which picture him at about the same age. One was in Gifford's widow's possession, and eventually passed into the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the other is in the collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia. The Metropolitan Museum's portrait, which is dated 1880, is especially close to the Academy's portrait in pose and manner of execution. Gifford was fifty-seven years of age at his death in August 1880. Ila Weiss has suggested that both the Metropolitan's and the Pennsylvania Academy's portraits were executed after his death, from memory with the assistance of studies presumably made in Gifford's lifetime, surely including this portrait of his friend retained by Johnson.
n.d.