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 Eastman Johnson (1824 - 1906) To Your Health, Sir, circa 1875 |
A Nantucket Legend Born in Lovell, Maine, Eastman Johnson initiated his art training in a Boston lithography shop in 1840. He moved back to Maine two years later and began concentrating on portraiture, both in charcoal and pencil. He worked and studied in numerous American locales such as Washington, DC, Cincinnati, and Nantucket, as well as in Europe with Thomas Couture (1815-1879) in Paris and Emanuel Leutze (1816-1868) in Dusseldorf. It was in Amsterdam that Johnson studied the work of 17th century Dutch and Flemish masters Rembrandt Harmenszoon Van Rijn (1606-1669) and Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641). Their paintings inspired him to develop a freer handling of paint, a richer palette, and a penchant for picturesque subjects. He returned permanently to the United States in 1858. Johnson’s subject matter included portraits of the wealthy and influential, from John Quincy Adams, to literary figures, to portraits of unnamed individuals, but he is best known for his genre work. He typically utilized old master techniques, many of which were Rembrandtian, to depict contemporary and quintessentially American subjects. For example, To Your Health, Sir presents a tight and fairly detailed interior view, faint sunlight from an unseen window as the light source, and a dark tonality. The older man with the top hat and raised glass in the painting is portrayed in strict profile, as though the viewer were seated at the bar beside him witnessing his heartfelt toast to the bartender. Nantucket, Massachusetts, to which Johnson took annual sojourns after 1870, is most likely the locale that inspired To Your Health, Sir. It was there that Johnson found inspiration for a set of portraits that were evocative of a lingering and slowly declining past; his muses became the aging male population on the island. “In those compelling works he recorded the physical decline and psychological isolation that paralleled the waning of a regional way of life” (1). Nantucket had since become “a little town whose ships have sailed away to other ports” marking the end of a golden era for the island (2). Johnson found of interest the insular inhabitants of the New England seacoast, among them Captain Nathan H. Manter, one of the artist’s earliest studies of local sea captains. Identified by his “respectable old silk high hat” and beard, the man who served as the pilot of the ferry Island Home before his retirement in 1891 is the most conceivable sitter for To Your Health, Sir and can be identified in a number of other paintings from Johnson’s time on Nantucket (3). To Your Health, Sir is an example of a small study which Johnson intended to turn into larger masterpieces once a commission was secured. Records show a 30 ½” x 23 ½” painting from 1880 by Johnson entitled A Study for A Glass with the Squire, which portrays two older gentlemen standing adjacent to a sideboard, facing each other with their glasses raised. On top of the sideboard is an open wooden cellaret, whose top rests against the wall and exposes a peacock-blue lining and what may be decanters. The man on the left shares a number of physical traits with the subject of To Your Health, Sir including the tall hat and winter coat. Both men stand in profile and raise their glass with their right hands, while their left hand rests on the surface of the sideboard. The smaller study shows a glimpse of the wooden cellaret that appears in full detail in the larger painting. Johnson played a lively role in the New York Art milieu, holding memberships at the Century Association and the Union League Club and exhibiting with the Society of American Artists. He was also one of the founders of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870 and served as a trustee until 1871. He died in New York in 1906. Provenance: From a private collection in New Jersey to the gallery. Bibliography: 1. Teresa A. Carbone, “Eastman Johnson’s Portrait of Aging New England,” in Magazine Antiques (November 1999), 700. 2. “Nantucket,” in Atlantic Monthly, vol. 17, no. 101, (March 1866), 2 9 7 . 3. William Walton, “Eastman Johnson, painter,” in Scribner’s Magazine, vol. 40, no. 3 (September 1906), Presentation Notes: In its original 4” Barbizon gilt frame. Expertly cleaned. |
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25 Lyme Street, Old Lyme, Connecticut 06371 - Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Please note that all works are subject to prior sale, and prices are subject to change.