Eastman Johnson (1824–1906)
Confidence and Admiration, 1859
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Oil on canvas
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14 1/16 x 12 1/16 inches
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Signed and dated lower left: E. Johnson– / 1859.
Provenance
- (Possibly) Silas C. Evans, by 1864
- (Possibly) Sale, Samuel P. Avery, New York, New York, March 14–15, 1877, no 134, from above
- (Possibly) Riker, March 14–15, 1877, acquired from above
- (Possibly) Stuart Ayers, by 1971
- Sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, New York, October 27–28, 1971, lot 101
- Israel Sack, Inc., New York, New York
- William N. Banks Jr., Newnan, Georgia, early 1970s
- Estate of above
- Sale, Brunk Auctions, Asheville, North Carolina, September 12, 2020, lot 96, from above
- Collection of J. Jeffrey and Ann Marie Fox, acquired from above
Exhibited
Brooklyn Art Association, New York, May 12–14, 1864, no 115
(Possibly) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC, TL.43.1971 (as Banjo Player)
Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory, MIT Museum Compton Gallery, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 12–September 29, 1984
Literature
(Possibly) Catalogue of the Private Collection of Fine Oil Paintings, &c. by American and Foreign Artists, the Property of Mr. Silas C. Evans (New York: Samuel P. Avery, 1877), 24, no. 134.
Letter, Robert Lloyd Webb to William N. Banks, Jr., December 19, 1983.
Robert Lloyd Webb, Ring the Banjar! The Banjo in America from Folklore to Factory (Anaheim Hills, CA: Centerstream Publishing, 1984), 33.
Laura Beach, “The Gentleman from Georgia: Writer and Collector William N. Banks, Jr., Remembered,” The Magazine Antiques 187, no. 5 (September/October 2020): 73.
Note
This painting is included in the catalogue raisonné of the artist’s work by Patricia Hills.
This work is one of two studies for Johnson’s masterwork, Negro Life at the South, at the New-York Historical Society, which was favorably reviewed at the National Academy of Design annual exhibition in 1859 and helped establish Johnson as a leading genre painter of the era.
In a 1983 letter, Robert Lloyd Webb, visiting curator for the Ring the Banjar! exhibition, wrote, “Not only is this one of the very few 19th-century American masterworks which show the role of the instrument in daily life, it is also one of few which escapes the often-racist and always narrow perspective of the minstrel show, which had reached international popularity by the time Johnson portrayed a very studious and serious artist, with a captivated audience of one.”[1]
[1] Robert Lloyd Webb, letter to William N. Banks, Jr., dated December 19, 1983.
Related Work
Confidence and Admiration, ca. 1859, oil on canvas, 11 1/4 x 9 1/8 inches; Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Massachusetts
Negro Life at the South, 1859, oil on linen, 37 x 46 inches; New York Public Library, on permanent loan to New-York Historical Society, New York
Negro Life at the South, ca. 1876, oil on canvas, 18 1/4 x 24 1/8 inches; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
catalogue
A Collector’s Journey
The catalogue, A Collector’s Journey, is designed specifically for museum directors and curators, by focusing solely on the appearance, provenance, and exhibition history of each painting. The collections are dynamic and will continue to expand as additional exceptional and historically important paintings are acquired.
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