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Eastman Johnson

Child in Bed

Maker

Eastman Johnson (American, 1824-1906)

Title

Child in Bed

Year

ca.1878-1879

Medium

  • Charcoal with erasing on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Charcoal with erasing on paper

Materials

charcoal

Supports

  • Medium weight wove paper

Dimensions

49.9 x 40.5 cm (19 5/8 x 15 15/16 inches)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum purchase: gift of the Museum Associates

Object Number

80.074

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Publications

  • Books

A Handbook of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design

Articles

American Drawings and Watercolors / Eastman Johnson's Child in Bed

Exhibition History

Landscape and Leisure
19th-Century American Drawings from the Collection
Mar 13, 2015 – Jul 19, 2015

Label copy

This intimate, almost melancholic scene set in a simple country house is unusual compared to other 19th-century American images of children, which tended instead toward the narratival, sentimental, or coy. The fine modeling of blended strokes on the child’s face suggests that the work is a likeness of a child Eastman Johnson knew, rather than a genre type. Johnson’s training in Düsseldorf and Paris influenced his confident handling of charcoal and vigorous use of line and shadow. In this drawing he employed overall tone, outlining with the edge of the charcoal as well as erasing to create contours.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Eastman Johnson (American, 1824-1906)
Child in Bed, ca.1878-1879
Charcoal with erasing on paper
49.9 x 40.5 cm (19 5/8 x 15 15/16 inches)
Museum purchase: gift of the Museum Associates 80.074

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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