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Study from Life: Down East
Artist
Eastman Johnson
(American, 1814 - 1906)
Date1860
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsimage: 17 7/8 x 14 in. (45.4 x 35.6 cm)
frame: 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 x 3 1/8 in. (64.8 x 54 x 7.9 cm)
frame: 25 1/2 x 21 1/4 x 3 1/8 in. (64.8 x 54 x 7.9 cm)
ClassificationsART, 2-DIMENSIONAL
Credit LineMuseum Purchase with the Robert and Hertha Rockwell Deaccession Fund
Object number2025.14
DescriptionA middle-aged man in a domestic interior. He sits cross-legged in a chair by a fireplace, leaning forward to light his pipe. Warm pink tones enliven his cheeks, nose, and knuckles, echoing the glowing embers in the hearth to his right. Johnson artfully draws attention to the different properties of materials through color and texture, conveying soft folds in the man’s shoes, mottled blue-green socks, parallel folds in the pant leg where the man rests his elbow, the details of stitching and the puffed sleeves of the teal blue shirt, the stiff dark vest, and a striking slash of white fabric at his throat. His hair is the same reddish brown of the surrounding woodwork—recorded with loose brushwork that conveys the wood grain—so that the room seems to enfold the figure. The tight framing of the man, with his right foot nearly at the bottom of the canvas and the diagonal lines of the wooden floorboards, draw the viewer closer into the scene. On View
New Acquisitions Gallery
