The Toilet
1873
Artist, American, 1824 - 1906
Artwork overview
-
Medium
oil on paper board
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 66.5 × 56.2 cm (26 3/16 × 22 1/8 in.)
framed: 100.33 × 90.81 × 10.16 cm (39 1/2 × 35 3/4 × 4 in.) -
Accession
2015.19.85
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
James Sloan, by 1875.[1] purchased probably before April 1883 by Nathan Guilford [1841-1907], New York and Yonkers;[2] by inheritance to his widow, Mary Wallace Guilford [b. 1841]; by inheritance 1936 to their daughter, Mary Wallace Stewart [née Guilford, 1872-c. 1955]; by inheritance to her sons, Guilford Stewart [1905-1968], Sharon, Massachusetts, and Ralph Aldace Stewart, Jr.; (Childs Gallery, Boston); purchased October 1957 as Woman in an Interior by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] Sloan lent the painting to the 1875 annual exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York. The artist had probably lent the painting to the Century Association, New York, in 1874; see New-York Evening Post (12 January 1874): 4.
[2] See letter dated 9 December 1957 from Charles Childs to Hermann Warner Williams, Jr., the Corcoran's director; in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1874
Probably Century Association, New York, 10 January 1874, no. 3, as Lady Before a Mirror.
1875
Fiftieth Annual Exhibition of the National Academy of Design, New York, 8 April - 20 May 1875, no. 174.
1963
Progress of an American Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1963, unpublished checklist, as The Earring.
1966
Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist, as The Earring.
1970
American Pupils of Thomas Couture, University of Maryland Art Gallery, College Park, 1970, no. 22, as The Earring.
1972
Eastman Johnson: Retrospective Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Detroit Institute of Arts; Cincinnati Art Museum; Milwaukee Art Center, 1972, no. 74, as The Earring.
1981
Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1981-1983, no. 14.
1987
Loan to display with permanent collection, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1987.
2000
Eastman Johnson: Painting America, Brooklyn Museum of Art; San Diego Museum of Art; Seattle Art Museum, 2000, no. 39.
2002
The Gilded Cage: Views of American Women, 1873-1921, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2002, unpublished checklist.
2004
Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 20 November 2004 - 7 August 2005, unpublished checklist.
2005
Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 66.
2008
The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.
2009
American Paintings from the Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 6 June - 18 October 2009, unpublished checklist.
2013
American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013 - 28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.
Bibliography
2011
Napolitano, Laura Groves. "Eastman Johnson, The Toilet." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 136-137, 267, repro.
Inscriptions
lower right: E. Johnson / 1873
Wikidata ID
Q46630034