Sugaring Off

Maker Eastman Johnson (American, 1824 - 1906)

Collections

American Paintings Selections

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1865

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensions33 1/2 x 53 1/2 in. (85.1 x 135.9 cm.) frame: 41 × 61 1/2 × 2 3/4 in. (104.1 × 156.2 × 7 cm.)

Signedl.r.: E. J.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens. Gift of the Virginia Steele Scott Foundation

Status

On view

Label TextSugaring Off is one of Eastman Johnson's many studies for a large genre painting that he never completed. The subject was inspired by Johnson's annual pilgrimages to his childhood home of Fryeburg, Maine. Beginning in 1865, he visited in the early spring, just when the sugar maples' sap was beginning to flow and sugar-making camps became festive, communal centers. A large group of figures, including a young man in the blue uniform of the Union Army, socialize around a large iron caldron of boiling sap. The ex-soldier's presence in the cheerful group suggests the renewal and rebuilding of American communities after the horrors of the Civil War.

Eastman Johnson is renowned for his portrayals of American rural life. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s he focused on idealized depictions of American "types," including runaway slaves, Union troops, young women and children-subjects that appealed to the sentimental notions of his era.

Object number83.8.28

Exhibitions

American Made: Selections from The Huntington's Early American Art Collections