The paintings of Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) are distinguished icons of American art. Works such as Negro Life at the South (1859), Finding His Way (c. 1866), Not at Home (c. 1875), and The Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket (1880) are remarkable for their original representations as well as technique. Exceptionally gifted as a draftsman, Johnson returned from his years of European training highly skilled and inspired by the liberating example of Rembrandt-bringing a refined and evocative handling of color and light to his subjects.
This comprehensive catalogue is the most complete source of reproductions of Johnson's work. The essays by Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills, curators of the Brooklyn Museum of Art retrospective, and Jane Weiss, Sarah Burns, and Anne C. Rose reveal the true scope and diversity of Johnson's American subject matter, particularly the Civil War and Reconstruction imagery. A number of groundbreaking African-American subjects included here have not been shown with Johnson's other works since the artist's estate sale in 1907. The full flowering of Johnson's repertoire-including his rural themes, his remarkable domestic genre imagery, and his progressive representations of women-is presented in detail. New attention is given to the "home and hearth" subjects, now seen within the context of a rapidly modernizing society, as well as to his codification of American "types." Also included are his intuitively realized plein-air studies that are among Johnson's finest work. In addition, the authors freshly illuminate the key role of drawing in Johnson's work, and the volume features a substantial number of his highly accomplished but rarely seen works on paper. The presentation culminates with the artist's last statements in narrative imagery, including The Nantucket School of Philosophy (1887), and a group of his finest late portraits.
Throughout, the authors pursue Johnson's deliberate and energetic quest for quintessentially American subject matter. From their differing but complementary perspectives, they measure the breadth of Johnson's career for a new generation of readers. In a special section, the book offers yet another new perspective on the artists: a generous selection of Johnson's extraordinary letters, most of them published here for the first time. A detailed exhibition history and bibliography complete the volume.
