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Eastman Johnson is best remembered today for his talent as a genre painter. Johnson began as a successful portrait painter, capturing images of Longfellow, Emerson, and Hawthorne, but in 1858 turned to American genre themes such as depictions of African Americans, Native Americans, politics, and the frontier. Johnson concentrated on themes that recorded and ennobled rural American life before the Industrial Revolution.
Exhibition History“The 45th Annual Winter Antique Show,” Lenox Hill Station, New York, NY, January 12 – 25, 1999, no cat.
“American Treasures from the Fenimore Art Museum,” The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, February 20 – November 4, 2004, no cat.
BibliographyRichards, Frederick B., Lord, Clifford L. et al., “The Association: Trustees’ Meeting,” in New York History, vol. 24 no.4 (October, 1943), p. 609.
Johns, Elizabeth, American Genre Painting: The Politics of Everyday Life (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,1991), p. 202, fig. 55, ill.
Conforti, Michael, Ganz, James A. et al., The Clark Brothers Collect Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings (exh. cat. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 333, no. 221.
Artist
Eastman Johnson
(1824 - 1906)
The Blacksmith Shop
Date1863
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 20 1/4 × 24 3/16 × 2 1/4 in. (51.4 × 61.4 × 5.7 cm)
Sight: 16 5/8 × 20 1/2 in. (42.2 × 52.1 cm)
Object numberN0425.1955
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of Stephen C. Clark
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextThis painting centers on an iconic image of a rural craftsman, Solomon R. Newman of Milford, Pennsylvania, entertaining a group of youngsters. Observing a blacksmith in his shop was an exciting experience for children in the 19th century. In this painting, the blacksmith is the object of fascination for those who gather to watch him practice his craft. He embodies individuality, self-reliance, compassion, and skill.Eastman Johnson is best remembered today for his talent as a genre painter. Johnson began as a successful portrait painter, capturing images of Longfellow, Emerson, and Hawthorne, but in 1858 turned to American genre themes such as depictions of African Americans, Native Americans, politics, and the frontier. Johnson concentrated on themes that recorded and ennobled rural American life before the Industrial Revolution.
Exhibition History“The 45th Annual Winter Antique Show,” Lenox Hill Station, New York, NY, January 12 – 25, 1999, no cat.
“American Treasures from the Fenimore Art Museum,” The Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL, February 20 – November 4, 2004, no cat.
BibliographyRichards, Frederick B., Lord, Clifford L. et al., “The Association: Trustees’ Meeting,” in New York History, vol. 24 no.4 (October, 1943), p. 609.
Johns, Elizabeth, American Genre Painting: The Politics of Everyday Life (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,1991), p. 202, fig. 55, ill.
Conforti, Michael, Ganz, James A. et al., The Clark Brothers Collect Impressionist and Early Modern Paintings (exh. cat. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 333, no. 221.
On View
Not on viewc. 1950
c. 1870-1880
c. 2002-2014
c. 2002-2014
c. 2002-2014
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