Mount Vernon in 1857
Date1858
Artist
Eastman Johnson
(American, 1824 - 1906)
Medium/TechniqueOil paint, artist’s board
Credit LineAcquired through the generosity of Mike and Patti Sipple, 2021
Conservation courtesy of Mike and Patti Sipple
Object numberM-5900
DescriptionA horizontal landscape painting featuring a broad, grassy road between two fields (each field surrounded by a fence), a field of corn, an ice house, and the corner of a brick stable, all bathed in strong light, depicting an area known today as Paddock Road in late summer. A wooden gate stands to the left of the composition, while a Virginia rail fence surrounds a field of corn on the right. Inside the field of corn stands a four-sided building with pyramidal roof and a single fenestration on each visible elevation, likely the pisé icehouse constructed for Bushrod Washington in 1812. The rammed earth is visible through cracks and fallen sheets of the cream-colored render. The back corner of a brick building with a single dormer is visible to the right, likely George Washington’s 1782 stable.SignedIn black paint on rock in lower left corner: “1858.” In black paint in lower right corner: “EJ.”
Published ReferencesGardiner Hallock, “Pisé Construction in Early Nineteenth-Century Virginia,” Perspectives in Vernacular Architecture, 2004, Vol. 11 (2003).
Teresa A. Carbone and Patricia Hills, ed. Eastman Johnson: Painting America (New York: Brooklyn Museum of Art in association with Rizzoli International Publications, 1999).
John I. H. Baur, Eastman Johnson, 1824-1906: An American Genre Painter (Brooklyn, N.Y.: Brooklyn Museum, 1940).
American Art Association, Catalogue of Finished Pictures, Studies and Drawings of the Late Eastman Johnson, February 27, 1907.
MarkingsSticker on reverse of painting should be transcribed when painting is returned from conservator.
In graphite in artist’s hand on reverse: “Mt V…,” “Farm.”
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