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Eastman Johnson

The Toilet, 1873

Not on View

Medium

oil on paper board

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.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Gift of Captain A. S. Hickey, USN (Ret.), in memory of his wife, Caryl Crawford Hickey)

Accession Number

2015.19.85

Artists / Makers

Eastman Johnson (artist) American, 1824 - 1906

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

lower right: E. Johnson / 1873

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

Childs Gallery
Corcoran Gallery of Art
Guilford, Nathan, Mr. and Mrs.
Stewart, Guilford
Stewart, Mary Wallace
Stewart, Ralph Alcade Jr.

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1963: Progress of an American Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1963, unpublished checklist, as The Earring.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist, as The Earring.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.