Artist: Eastman Johnson Place/date of birth: Lovell, Maine 1824 Place/date of death: New York, New York 1906 Title: The Brown Family Date of completion: 1869 Materials: Oil on canvas Dimensions: 38 1/2 x 32 inches Signed and dated lower right: E. Johnson./1869 Collection: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Accession number: 1979.7.67 Introduction The family in this painting inhabits a very different kind of home from that of the wounded soldier in his earlier work, The Pension Claim Agent. Johnson based The Pension Claim Agent on descriptions of soldiers returning home after the war. In contrast, The Brown Family represents a real family that hired him to paint a portrait of themselves and of the house in which they lived. James Brown was a wealthy businessman and also one of the founders of Alex Brown and Sons, an investment bank in New York that still exists. Discussion The painting shows James Brown, his second wife Eliza, and their grandson, William Adams Brown. William has just run into the room to greet his grandparents who are enjoying a quiet afternoon by the fire. The Browns wear typical clothing for people of their economic level. William is "in skirts" which was normal clothing for young boys below the age of five or six in the earlier part of the nineteenth century. This painting probably shows the Browns in the parlor of their house on Park Avenue in Manhattan, although this location is not absolutely certain. The paneling and the furnishings for the room were made in the late 1840s for their previous house at Ninth Street and University Place and were brought to the Park Avenue house when the Browns moved around 1868-69. Although the Browns were fond of their parlor (enough to have it moved from one house to another), by 1869 its style was out of fashion; a fact remarked upon by a reviewer who saw the painting at an art exhibition: Is it possible that an artist could have invented or chosen this dreadful room? We cannot believe that Mr. Johnson would do either.... But he has gone to his task in a noble spirit of self-sacrifice....how skillfully he has wrought the whole discordant upholstery mess into a harmony which, while it allows nothing to escape, makes it easy to forget all the incongruous detail. - "National Academy of Design," Appleton's Journal of Popular Literature, Science and Art 1, no. 10 (5 June 1869): 309. Looking Closely Like Copley's portrait of the Vassals, this painting also reveals information about the family values of the late 1860s. Mrs. Brown is knitting, an activity which associates her with the maternal, domestic realm; at this time a woman's place was definitely considered to be in the home. Mr. Brown reads the newspaper, a clear sign of his engagement with the larger world outside the home. Style In contrast to the darker, moodier The Pension Claim Agent, here Johnson paints the Browns and their home in a crisp style that shows all the details of the room, its furnishings, the Browns' clothing, and their facial expressions. Whereas the veteran's war story was the main subject of The Pension Claim Agent, the focus of The Brown Family is the Browns themselves and their house. Even though the decor of the parlor was out-of-fashion, the high mirrors, crystal chandelier, drapery, and ornate woodwork all attest to the wealth of the family. The crystalline sheen of the decor adds to the slick glossiness of the painting. Artist See entry for The Pension Claim Agent. Further Reading On American interiors: William Seale. The Tasteful Interlude: American Interiors through the Camera's Eye, 1860-1917. New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975. Links to American History Curriculum
SLIDE 19
THE BROWN FAMILY
Introduction | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Slide List | Museum Visit