Eastman Johnson, The Longfellow Commissions

"Henry Wadsworth Longfellow" by Eastman Johnson

"Rising young poet and author and Harvard professor Henry Wadsworth Longfellow invited Eastman Johnson to Cambridge to execute a group of portrait heads. His first sitting was in the artist's new studio in Amory Hall in Boston. After a total of three sittings, Longfellow, who by all reports was quite conscious of appearances and fashion, was pleased with the handsome and lively portrait. 

 

It appears that four days later, while visiting Nathaniel Hawthorne, Longfellow proposed that he also sit for Johnson. In an effort to further his project of collecting the heads of his most admired friends and colleagues, Longfellow next wrote to Ralph Waldo Emerson: 'When you are next in Boston, pray take the trouble to step into Johnson's room and see the portrait of Hawthorne he is making for me.' 

 

Emerson also agreed to sit for Johnson, who remarked of the philosopher and writer, 'No one ever impressed me so as being a perfectly spiritual man, in mind, appearance and manner. His aspect was gentle and lovely... and every look, every word, every action was a s beautiful as could be conceived." 

 

In December he also completed the head of Charles Sumner, which was described as 'most excellent.' There were three additional commissions, and installed in Longfellow's newly arranged study, the portraits represented the heady circle that the young artist had entered, albeit tangentially."

 

Longfellow's collection: https://www.eastmanjohnson.org

 

To be continued

 

(Excerpts from "Eastman Johnson: Painting America" by Teresa Carbone and Patricia Hills.)