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Eastman Johnson

Sugaring Off, ca. 1864-1865

Description

Maker

  • Eastman Johnson, 1824-1906, American

Title

Sugaring Off

Year

ca. 1864-1865

Medium

Oil on canvas

Materials/Techniques

Materials

  • oil paint

Supports

  • canvas

Dimensions

134 x 245.1 cm (52 3/4 x 96 1/2 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

LR in red: E.J. LL in pencil: unfinished

Type

  • Paintings

Credit

Museum Works of Art Fund

Object Number

45.050

About

Making It in America, October 11, 2013 -

Johnson chose a humble subject, but this grand-scale work was intended for a merchant's carpeted salon—not the front rooms of the rural folks in the painting. In the days before “social media,” entire communities looked forward to occasions when everyone got together. Johnson captured the rascal kids, the fiddler, the young couples flirting, the returned veterans still wearing parts of their uniforms, all gathering in late fall to boil down sap collected from sugar-maple trees.

He first blocked out the scene in oil, then used the margins to try out ways to best shape his caricatures. These sketches were for his eyes only and would have been covered by layers of glaze and scumble as the process went forward.

Dennis Congdon, painter and RISD professor (Painting)

LR in red: E.J. LL in pencil: unfinished

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Projects & Publications

Publications

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

Selection VII

American Painting from the Museum's Collection, c.1800-1930

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Making It In America

October 11, 2013 - February 9, 2014

Johnson traveled to Europe to acquire the skills needed to become a great figure painter. His reputation in America later surged with the popularity of his detailed paintings of 19th-century rural life. In the early 1860s he began a series that chronicled maple-sap harvesting at a camp at Fryeburg, Maine.

In this lively, unfinished version, Johnson’s preparatory drawings and expressive under-painting indicate groupings planned for the final scheme. Poses, gestures, and details of costume contribute to a convincing enactment of communal engagement at time when the country was recovering from the devastating conflict of the Civil War.

Johnson chose a humble subject, but this grand-scale work was intended for a merchant's carpeted salon—not the front rooms of the rural folks in the painting. In the days before “social media,” entire communities looked forward to occasions when everyone got together. Johnson captured the rascal kids, the fiddler, the young couples flirting, the returned veterans still wearing parts of their uniforms, all gathering in late fall to boil down sap collected from sugar-maple trees.

He first blocked out the scene in oil, then used the margins to try out ways to best shape his caricatures. These sketches were for his eyes only and would have been covered by layers of glaze and scumble as the process went forward.

Dennis Congdon, painter and RISD professor (Painting)

An American Idyll

April 6, 2007 - January 6, 2008

Dress, Art, and Society

September 13, 1996 - January 5, 1997

From the Reserve IV

July 22 - October 2, 1994

Romanticism and Revival

December 4, 1992 - June 26, 1993

American Painting and Sculpture from the Permanent Collection

June 26, 1987 - January 3, 1988

Selection VII

March 31 - May 8, 1977

Days Gone By

July 1 - September 26, 1971

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is Sugaring Off with the accession number of 45.050. To request high-resolution files or 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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