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Lot Essay
Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, Eastman Johnson was considered America's pre-eminent figure painter. He arrived in New York in 1858 after several years of studying and traveling in Düsseldorf, London, Amsterdam, The Hague and Paris. Johnson was warmly received by the New York art world, which was eager to develop an American school of figure painting, as both portraiture and landscape were well accounted for. A critic from the Crayon cried encouragement by writing, "Pictures must be painted that show how man thinks and feels, what he believes in and what he hopes for--in short, representations of human beings struggling for spiritual life." (as quoted in T.A. Carbone, "The Genius of the Hour: Eastman Johnson in New York, 1860-1880," Eastman Johnson Painting America, Brooklyn, New York, 1999, p. 49) At a time of social and political turmoil on the eve of the Civil War, Johnson met the call and depicted a variety of subject matter in his paintings that appealed to the sentimental notions of the conflict-filled era. His themes ranged from runaway slaves and heroic Union soldiers to rustic, rural types and young women and children in domestic settings.
With the onset of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, activity in the New York art world declined because of the enlistment of artists into the War including Sanford Gifford and Jervis McEntee. Johnson declined enlistment, but encouraged by New York critics to document the events of the War, he could not help but involve himself. He chose subjects drawn from war time experiences, ones that were sentimental but those he actually experienced. Johnson followed the Union troops on three campaigns. He was near Bull Run in March 1862, at Antietam on September 17, 1862 and marched with the Union Army through Maryland after the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. (P. Hills, "Painting Race: Eastman Johnson's Pictures of Slaves, Ex-Slaves, and Freedmen," in Eastman Johnson Painting America, Brooklyn, New York, 1999, p. 136) From these first-hand experiences, Johnson executed several great Civil War images.
Johnson's contemporary, Winslow Homer, was extremely popular during the Civil War for his own depictions of soldiers at the front, hence Johnson executed only a few images of soldiers. However, after a summer campaign with the Army in 1863, the artist executed The Wounded Drummer Boy (The Century Association, New York), a drawing depicting a wounded drummer boy atop the shoulders of a Union soldier, determinedly playing his drum while other soldiers continue to fight or lay wounded on the ground around him. Patricia Hills writes, "Since wounded drummer boys were part of the sentimental lore of the Civil War, Johnson's picture appealed to popular taste." ("Painting Race: Eastman Johnson's Pictures of Slaves, Ex-Slaves, and Freedmen," p. 138) The image distilled "the entire Union effort into a single, emblematic figural group striding toward certain victory" and was one of the many works Johnson submitted to the fund-raising fairs organized by the United States Sanitary Commission in 1864, to improve the conditions in army camps, ambulance corps and hospitals during the War.
In the same vein of depicting realistic scenes, the following year Johnson painted the present work, The Little Soldier of 1864. While clearly an image of a soldier, this is one which links the divide between home and warfront. According to Patricia Hills, "War was also, to Johnson, a redirection of domestic concerns and occupations, and he gravitated to anecdotal scenes of the home front. The quiet humanity of his rural subjects, the lack of grimaces and exaggerated gestures, appealed to most American collectors of mid-century. Johnson's approach of eliminating exaggeration but retaining individualization not only endeared him to a nation of democrats, but also set the precedent for the realism of Eakins." (Eastman Johnson, New York, 1972, p. 40)
Johnson depicts a child whose young age is emphasized by a uniform that overwhelms his body with an overloaded pack and weaponry at his side and a rifle larger than himself. He stands with a determined and hopeful gaze, highlighted by the rays of sun upon his face. He stands outside a late summer garden resplendent with sunflowers and hollyhocks. While his canteen and pack are of standard Federal issue, he carries a German-made musket and an old French flintlock pistol, both converted to a percussion action. The boy's youth and the inclusion of imported arms may be a comment on the depletion of men and materials during the last months of the war. Moreover, he wears a distinctive low-crowned officer's kepi, perhaps a remnant previously lost at the front.
The potency of The Little Soldier rests in Johnson's ability to adroitly illustrate the brutal reality of the Civil War upon the entire American nation. The irony of a little boy dressed and ready for battle, still within the confines of a protective, domestic setting is perhaps even more powerful than images of men directly on the battlefield. Even Johnson's choice to render the scene on a small canvas emphasizes the impact of the solitary figure. These images pertinent to the troubles of the time were described by a writer for the Round Table as, "[possessing] that simple and domestic look that makes us feel grateful to the artist for so affectionately rendering subjects that are so closely connected with the heart of today...[T]hey mean more than they pretend." (as quoted in "The Genius of the Hour: Eastman Johnson in New York, 1860-1880," p. 59) As the leading figural painter of the nineteenth century, at a time of one of our nation's most troubled periods, Johnson provided a visual outlet where both beauty and spirituality in life and art co-existed.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Dr. Patricia Hills.
With the onset of the Civil War in the spring of 1861, activity in the New York art world declined because of the enlistment of artists into the War including Sanford Gifford and Jervis McEntee. Johnson declined enlistment, but encouraged by New York critics to document the events of the War, he could not help but involve himself. He chose subjects drawn from war time experiences, ones that were sentimental but those he actually experienced. Johnson followed the Union troops on three campaigns. He was near Bull Run in March 1862, at Antietam on September 17, 1862 and marched with the Union Army through Maryland after the battle of Gettysburg in 1863. (P. Hills, "Painting Race: Eastman Johnson's Pictures of Slaves, Ex-Slaves, and Freedmen," in Eastman Johnson Painting America, Brooklyn, New York, 1999, p. 136) From these first-hand experiences, Johnson executed several great Civil War images.
Johnson's contemporary, Winslow Homer, was extremely popular during the Civil War for his own depictions of soldiers at the front, hence Johnson executed only a few images of soldiers. However, after a summer campaign with the Army in 1863, the artist executed The Wounded Drummer Boy (The Century Association, New York), a drawing depicting a wounded drummer boy atop the shoulders of a Union soldier, determinedly playing his drum while other soldiers continue to fight or lay wounded on the ground around him. Patricia Hills writes, "Since wounded drummer boys were part of the sentimental lore of the Civil War, Johnson's picture appealed to popular taste." ("Painting Race: Eastman Johnson's Pictures of Slaves, Ex-Slaves, and Freedmen," p. 138) The image distilled "the entire Union effort into a single, emblematic figural group striding toward certain victory" and was one of the many works Johnson submitted to the fund-raising fairs organized by the United States Sanitary Commission in 1864, to improve the conditions in army camps, ambulance corps and hospitals during the War.
In the same vein of depicting realistic scenes, the following year Johnson painted the present work, The Little Soldier of 1864. While clearly an image of a soldier, this is one which links the divide between home and warfront. According to Patricia Hills, "War was also, to Johnson, a redirection of domestic concerns and occupations, and he gravitated to anecdotal scenes of the home front. The quiet humanity of his rural subjects, the lack of grimaces and exaggerated gestures, appealed to most American collectors of mid-century. Johnson's approach of eliminating exaggeration but retaining individualization not only endeared him to a nation of democrats, but also set the precedent for the realism of Eakins." (Eastman Johnson, New York, 1972, p. 40)
Johnson depicts a child whose young age is emphasized by a uniform that overwhelms his body with an overloaded pack and weaponry at his side and a rifle larger than himself. He stands with a determined and hopeful gaze, highlighted by the rays of sun upon his face. He stands outside a late summer garden resplendent with sunflowers and hollyhocks. While his canteen and pack are of standard Federal issue, he carries a German-made musket and an old French flintlock pistol, both converted to a percussion action. The boy's youth and the inclusion of imported arms may be a comment on the depletion of men and materials during the last months of the war. Moreover, he wears a distinctive low-crowned officer's kepi, perhaps a remnant previously lost at the front.
The potency of The Little Soldier rests in Johnson's ability to adroitly illustrate the brutal reality of the Civil War upon the entire American nation. The irony of a little boy dressed and ready for battle, still within the confines of a protective, domestic setting is perhaps even more powerful than images of men directly on the battlefield. Even Johnson's choice to render the scene on a small canvas emphasizes the impact of the solitary figure. These images pertinent to the troubles of the time were described by a writer for the Round Table as, "[possessing] that simple and domestic look that makes us feel grateful to the artist for so affectionately rendering subjects that are so closely connected with the heart of today...[T]hey mean more than they pretend." (as quoted in "The Genius of the Hour: Eastman Johnson in New York, 1860-1880," p. 59) As the leading figural painter of the nineteenth century, at a time of one of our nation's most troubled periods, Johnson provided a visual outlet where both beauty and spirituality in life and art co-existed.
This painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work being compiled by Dr. Patricia Hills.