Eastman Johnson, Early Genre Work

Eastman Johnson "Self-Portrait"

 

"The first two decades of Eastman Johnson's New York career are often characterized as a time in which he produced a string of innovative works set against the background of routine, anecdotal genre subjects.

His first substantial efforts in that direction seemed to express the thoughts and feelings of his entire audience; pro- and antislavery supporters alike deemed his 'Negro Life at the South,' exhibited at the National Academy of Design in 1859, a stunning success.

 

In Maine the following summer, he prepared a precisely composed and carefully painted rural subject titled 'Corn Husking.' He chose for a setting the barn owned by the Day family with whom he boarded, and enlisted his hosts as his models. 

 

Perhaps the most interesting detail is the inscription that he added to the weathered barn door. 'Lincoln & Hamlin,' written in large, clear script, makes reference to Maine's native son, Lincoln's running mate, Hannibal Hamlin. The rifle propped below the slogan inserted the fall's burning political debate into an otherwise placid scene. Most appropriate since six weeks after Lincoln's inauguration in March, Confederate troops fired on Fort Sumter and the Civil War was begun."

 

 

To be continued

 

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