Sugaring Off
Maker
Eastman Johnson
(American, 1824 - 1906)
Collections
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
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.
Status
On viewObject number83.8.28
Exhibitions
Sargent Claude Johnson
1933-1934
Object number: 2011.5
