American, 1824 - 1906
Eastman Johnson was raised in Fryeburg and in Augusta, Maine. He early demonstrated a marked talent for drawing, but none for the dry goods business in which his father first placed him. Consequently, in about 1840, he was sent for a year to Bufford's lithography shop in Boston to learn that trade. However, he turned the experience to launching a career as a crayon portraitist, first back in Augusta, and then ranging into Massachusetts and Rhode Island in pursuit of commissions. In the winter of 1844-45 Johnson was in Washington, D. C., with permission to use a Senate committee room in the Capitol as a studio, to take the likenesses of distinguished persons living and visiting in the city; the following year he went to Boston on the urging of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and there set up a studio in the Tremont Temple. Among Johnson's sitters during these years were Dolley Madison, Daniel Webster, John Quincy Adams, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
In 1849 Johnson, who had made some tentative trys at working in color, went to study in Dsseldorf, Germany. He first attended the Dusseldorf Royal Academy, and then in early 1851, entered the studio of Emanuel Leutze. At the end of that year he went to live in The Hague, the Netherlands, where he remained, with some excursions around northern Europe, studying the Dutch Old Masters, and painting portraits, into 1855. He then went to Paris where he took up study with Thomas Couture; however, the death of his mother prompted his return to America in the autumn of 1855. The next two and a half years Johnson passed chiefly in Washington, D. C., and in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the spring of 1858 he opened a studio in New York.
Johnson had sent paintings from Washington to the Academy annual exhibitions of 1856 and 1857; these were subjects related to his European experience. He was not represented in 1858, but in the annual of 1859, along with three crayon drawings, a painting belonging to William W. Corcoran of Washington, and The Sketch Book, appeared the painting that established his fame:
Negro Life at the South (New-York Historical Society), which came to be known as The Old Kentucky Home. This large scene, based on observations of slave quarters in Washington's Georgetown section, brought him recognition as the major painter of American genre of the day. Nevertheless, he maintained and, indeed, enhanced his reputation as a consummate painter of both individual and group portraits for the rest of his long career.
In the 1860s, in addition to a number of Civil War related subjects, Johnson was at work on a large, complex scene of maple sugaring in Fryeburg, which resulted in a number of studies, but no fully resolved version. In 1871 he acquired property on Nantucket Island, where he summered for the rest of his life. Nantucket was the of an extended series of studies of cranberry harvesting done in the latter half of the 1870s, and in the 1880s a number of images of the elders of Nantucket, singly and in groups conversing around a pot-bellied stove in a shop interior. However, in the '80s Johnson worked less in genre subjects and increasingly in portriature.
In addition to sustaining active participation in Academy annual exhibitions throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, Johnson was elected to the Council from 1866 to 1870, vice-president 1874 to 1876, and again to Council, 1890 to 1893. He was appointed a visitor to the Academy school for the seasons of 1867-68 and 1868-69. He was also a member of the Society of American Artists, and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
When he died in 1906, the Academy's formal memorial to him recalled:
Eastman Johnson, entering our ranks about the time of the Civil War, brought to the Academy a solid accomplishment as a draftsman and painter, the fruit of a long sojourn as a Student in Holland. For many years in the Academy Exhibitions Johnson's compositions representing phases of American life were examples to our painters and when in 1877 the now historic Society of American Artists was formed the mature painter, without severing his loyalty to the Academy, gave hearty welcome to the newer outlook of the younger men.
To the end of his career Johnson maintained his enthusiasm for good painting rendered significant by his own practice to which we owe in his later years a series of portraits viril in characterization and color.
In 1849 Johnson, who had made some tentative trys at working in color, went to study in Dsseldorf, Germany. He first attended the Dusseldorf Royal Academy, and then in early 1851, entered the studio of Emanuel Leutze. At the end of that year he went to live in The Hague, the Netherlands, where he remained, with some excursions around northern Europe, studying the Dutch Old Masters, and painting portraits, into 1855. He then went to Paris where he took up study with Thomas Couture; however, the death of his mother prompted his return to America in the autumn of 1855. The next two and a half years Johnson passed chiefly in Washington, D. C., and in Cincinnati, Ohio. In the spring of 1858 he opened a studio in New York.
Johnson had sent paintings from Washington to the Academy annual exhibitions of 1856 and 1857; these were subjects related to his European experience. He was not represented in 1858, but in the annual of 1859, along with three crayon drawings, a painting belonging to William W. Corcoran of Washington, and The Sketch Book, appeared the painting that established his fame:
Negro Life at the South (New-York Historical Society), which came to be known as The Old Kentucky Home. This large scene, based on observations of slave quarters in Washington's Georgetown section, brought him recognition as the major painter of American genre of the day. Nevertheless, he maintained and, indeed, enhanced his reputation as a consummate painter of both individual and group portraits for the rest of his long career.
In the 1860s, in addition to a number of Civil War related subjects, Johnson was at work on a large, complex scene of maple sugaring in Fryeburg, which resulted in a number of studies, but no fully resolved version. In 1871 he acquired property on Nantucket Island, where he summered for the rest of his life. Nantucket was the of an extended series of studies of cranberry harvesting done in the latter half of the 1870s, and in the 1880s a number of images of the elders of Nantucket, singly and in groups conversing around a pot-bellied stove in a shop interior. However, in the '80s Johnson worked less in genre subjects and increasingly in portriature.
In addition to sustaining active participation in Academy annual exhibitions throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, Johnson was elected to the Council from 1866 to 1870, vice-president 1874 to 1876, and again to Council, 1890 to 1893. He was appointed a visitor to the Academy school for the seasons of 1867-68 and 1868-69. He was also a member of the Society of American Artists, and a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
When he died in 1906, the Academy's formal memorial to him recalled:
Eastman Johnson, entering our ranks about the time of the Civil War, brought to the Academy a solid accomplishment as a draftsman and painter, the fruit of a long sojourn as a Student in Holland. For many years in the Academy Exhibitions Johnson's compositions representing phases of American life were examples to our painters and when in 1877 the now historic Society of American Artists was formed the mature painter, without severing his loyalty to the Academy, gave hearty welcome to the newer outlook of the younger men.
To the end of his career Johnson maintained his enthusiasm for good painting rendered significant by his own practice to which we owe in his later years a series of portraits viril in characterization and color.
