GENERAL DESCRIPTION
Although small in scale, this quiet scene packs a visual punch as Eastman Johnson explores the intense effect of broad sunlight on his youthful sitters. These experiments in rendering outdoor light had increasingly occupied Johnson during his annual summers on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
One of the most internationally minded of mid-19th-century American painters, the Boston-born Johnson studied at the Dresden Academy in Germany, in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Paris. Returning to the United States after 1855, "the American Rembrandt"—as Johnson was called—enjoyed popular success for images of everyday life such as this one.
Excerpt from
William Keyse Rudolph, DMA label text, 2006
NOTES
Created c. 1875-1880
Object File Reviewed
Checked Piction
Curatorial Remarks (?): Eastman Johnson based many of his most successful genre scenes on his summer visits to Nantucket, where he had bought property and built a studio on the bluffs overlooking the Atlantic. The fresh breezes and unpretentious society of the island were a respite from the "whirl of the city" in which his career was conducted. "Five Boys on a Wall" is an oil sketch on board, capturing the natural play of light and shadow on a group of children lounging in the sun. From such sketches, Johnson would refine the composition, developing his sitters' faces and costumes in his finished works. Following the horrors of the Civil War, Johnson, Winslow Homer, and other artists frequently portrayed the idyllic country lives of the "barefoot boys," whose carefree existence faintly echoed the lost innocence of the nation.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Johnson, Eastman (American, 1824-1906)
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location: Nantucket (Nantucket Island/Massachussetts/United States): TGN: 7014179
Process/materials
Oil on composition board
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
c. 1875-1880-d.1906: Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)
1906-1978: private collection, thence by descent from the above
From 1978: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Roland S. Bond, Mrs. Alfred L. Bromberg, and Margaret J. and George V. Charlton, purchased from Hirschl and Adler Inc., New York [1]
[1] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Eastman Johnson, Biography~Read a biography of Eastman Johnson from the National Gallery of Art.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston~Compare Eastman Johnson's Five Boys on a Wall to a work by one of his contemporaries, Winslow Homer's 1874 Boys in a Pasture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1978.8.FA
Category
rules_operator
AND
General Description
Although small in scale, this quiet scene packs a visual punch as Eastman Johnson explores the intense effect of broad sunlight on his youthful sitters. These experiments in rendering outdoor light had increasingly occupied Johnson during his annual summers on Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
One of the most internationally minded of mid-19th-century American painters, the Boston-born Johnson studied at the Dresden Academy in Germany, in The Hague, Netherlands, and in Paris. Returning to the United States after 1855, "the American Rembrandt"—as Johnson was called—enjoyed popular success for images of everyday life such as this one.
Excerpt from
William Keyse Rudolph, DMA label text, 2006
Fun Facts
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Eastman Johnson, Biography~Read a biography of Eastman Johnson from the National Gallery of Art.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Boston~Compare Eastman Johnson's Five Boys on a Wall to a work by one of his contemporaries, Winslow Homer's 1874 Boys in a Pasture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Notes
Created c. 1875-1880
Object File Reviewed
Checked Piction
Curatorial Remarks (?): Eastman Johnson based many of his most successful genre scenes on his summer visits to Nantucket, where he had bought property and built a studio on the bluffs overlooking the Atlantic. The fresh breezes and unpretentious society of the island were a respite from the "whirl of the city" in which his career was conducted. "Five Boys on a Wall" is an oil sketch on board, capturing the natural play of light and shadow on a group of children lounging in the sun. From such sketches, Johnson would refine the composition, developing his sitters' faces and costumes in his finished works. Following the horrors of the Civil War, Johnson, Winslow Homer, and other artists frequently portrayed the idyllic country lives of the "barefoot boys," whose carefree existence faintly echoed the lost innocence of the nation.
Catalogue essays
Artist/designers
Johnson, Eastman (American, 1824-1906)
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location: Nantucket (Nantucket Island/Massachussetts/United States): TGN: 7014179
Process/materials
Oil on composition board
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
c. 1875-1880-d.1906: Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)
1906-1978: private collection, thence by descent from the above
From 1978: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Roland S. Bond, Mrs. Alfred L. Bromberg, and Margaret J. and George V. Charlton, purchased from Hirschl and Adler Inc., New York [1]
[1] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
rules
Apply To
Objects
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1978.8.FA
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object_notes_3_a-0350.xml.nores