Joseph Wesley Harper, Jr.

c. 1885

Eastman Johnson

Artist, American, 1824 - 1906

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 69.2 x 56.5 cm (27 1/4 x 22 1/4 in.)
    framed: 76.8 x 65.4 x 5.1 cm (30 1/4 x 25 3/4 x 2 in.)

  • Accession

    1947.17.63

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Elizabeth B. Johnson, the artist's widow, New York; sold 20 June 1909 to Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931], New York;[1] his estate; sold as part of the Clarke collection 29 January 1936, through (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1947 to NGA.
[1] The name of the seller, "Mrs. Eastman Johnson," and the date of the purchase by Clarke are recorded in a copy of Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Nineteenth Centuries Collected by Thomas B. Clarke (Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928) annotated with information from files of M. Knoedler & Co., NY (copy in NGA curatorial records and in NGA library).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1921

  • Exhibition of Paintings by Early American Portrait Painters, The Union League Club, New York, December 1921, no. 7, as John Wesley Harper.

1928

  • Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928-1931, unnumbered and unpaginated catalogue, as John Wesley Harper.

1967

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1967-1980.

Bibliography

1928

  • Portraits by Early American Artists of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, Collected by Thomas B. Clarke. Exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1928, unnumbered.

1940

  • Baur, John I.H. Eastman Johnson, 1824-1906: An American Genre Painter. Exh. cat. The Brooklyn Museum, 1940: 68, no. 196.

1952

  • Rutledge and Lane 1952, 128.

1970

  • American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 74, repro.

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 184, repro.

1992

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 213, repro.

1996

  • Kelly, Franklin, with Nicolai Cikovsky, Jr., Deborah Chotner, and John Davis. American Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1996: 382-384, repro.

Inscriptions

lower left, damaged from fabric being folded over smaller stretcher: E.J.

Wikidata ID

Q20189772

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