The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-06
EASTMAN JOHNSON DEADATSS
N MS EASY CHAIR, PUTTING HIS
PIPE, WIEN TIE END CAME.
Famous as q Portrait Painter He Made His
Reputation as q D~eIineator Of Ameri-
can Domestic and Negro Character
Painted John ID. ROck eT eller'S Portrait.

Eastman Johnson, the distinguished
painter, diod suddenly at his home, o5
West Flfty-ffth street, at 1850 O'Clock
last night in his eighty-seoond year. Mr..
Johns n had been aillnR for almost o year
and had never got over the shock he had on
March 10 when there was q fire in his home
Last night he was feeling unusually we'll
He went from the dinner table to his library,
and settling himself back in an easy chair,
lighted his pipe-his almost constant COM
panion-and began to blow out big rings
OF smoIe.
His wife sat near him, and her maid also
was IN the room, They were talking about
household matters and the artist now and
then put in a word between the smoke
prfs,
Some fifteen minutes after they had come
into the room Mr.. Johnson said to his wife:
Read me something interesting" She
asked him some question and there was
no response. She spoke to him again, and
then going over to his chair found that he
was unconscious. When a physician ar
rived the artist was dead, IL indeed he was
not dead when he failed to answer his wife.
Nj, johnson was born in Lowell, Me-,
on July 20, 1924. At Is he adopted dra wing
as his profession. He used to tell an anus
ing story Of how he happened to select that
calling. His father, Philip @. J. johnson. who
was for many years Secretary of State Of
Maine, gave him $500 to start with, urg-
ing him 10 go out and inves the money
SS a prudent boy ought to.
Young Johnson went from place to place,
but he couldn't find the kind Of an invest
ment that his father referred to. His
money dwindled slowly, until finally he
hadn't a penny of the $500 left. He was
ashamed to go home and took TO paint
Ing portraits for a living. From one town
TO another he travelled, painting the grocery
man here and the minister there, Grad
ually his efforts began to yield him an in
come and finally he had saved $500. Then
he went home and handed the entire
amount over to his father. Mr.. Johnson's
friends used to ask whether he old his
father what had become Of the first $500,
and the artist invariably replied:
The deuce, no; he would have disin-
herited me-"
lr; Johnson settled first in Augusta,
working almost wholly on portraits in
black and white and in pastel. In 1sl5
he moved with his parents to Washington,
D. G., where he drew. portraits of many
distinguished men, including Daniel Web
ster and John Quincy Adams. While in
Boston in ls4e- 40 he made portraits of Long
fellow and his family, Emerson, Hawthorne
and Sumner. He went to Dusseldorf in
1919, studying one year at the ROYAL Aca-
DENY. lie spent a year with Leutze and
four at The Hague, painting there his first
important pictures in oil. The ~Savoyard"
and The Card Players" He established
himself in Paris, but returned to the United
STA les in 1855.
Washington and on the northern shores OF
Lake Superior among the Indian tribes.
lnlsSsh he painted THE Old Kentucky Home
That painting practically established his
reputation as an artist. In that year he
opened a studio in New York city, where
he had lived ever since. He was elected
an academician in 1850, and since that time
has contributed to each Of the annual ex-
hibitions of the National Academy. Al
though Johnson excelled as a portrait
painter, he made his reputation az a delinea-
tor of American domestic and negro char
acter.
Among his pictures. besides The Old
. NPpdsofey n of State are The 5ben RaTef %SrG Bog.
Dropping OF" -Fiddling His Way The
Pension Agent Milton Debating to His
Daughters, The Old Stage Coach, -Husk-
i ioSss az N @%bss the 'ss2R sIls BY h snd s 1oid
Whalers Of Nantucket"
His portraits, besides those mentioned
above, include likenesses Of Presidents
Arthur, Cleveland and Harrison, W. II.
'dHutIDHl, secretary roger, NlluhU %.
Aston, John D.. Rockefeller, VI, d. Sloane, |
Mrs. Alexander Hamilton, Mrs. Dolly
Madison, from life; Mrs. August Belmont,
Mrs. Hamilton Fish, Mr.. and Mrs. j.. A.
Burden, PresideDt McCosh of Princeton.
President Noah Porter of Yale and Presi-
dent Andrew d. White of Cornell, Wheeler
H. Peckham, Bishop Potter and Morris X.
Jesup.
Mr.. johnson received medals for exhi-
billions at Paris, London, the Philadelphia
Centennial, the Worlds Columbian Expo
sition and at the Buffalo and Charleston
eIpositions, He was a member Of many
art and social organizations.
Mr., Johnson married Miss Elizabeth W.
Buckley. His daughter, Ethel, is the " ife
of Alfred r. Conkling. Besides the stu do
in his house he had one at Nantucket, where
lie was accustomed to spend the
Mother Of the Late Senator BrIce Dead.
LIMA, Ohio, April 5.-Mrs. C. C. Brice, |
mother Of the late Senator Calvin s. Brice.
dted at her home on West Marion street this
morning. She was "a years old. She had
been III but a short time. Senator Brice
was r. devoted son, and as soon az wealth
began to flow in upon him his mother shared
II. He abundantly provided for her old
age and she leaves a small fortune.