1902.153
Portrait of Charles Appleton Packard
Artist
Eastman Johnson
(Lowell, Maine, 7/29/1824 - 4/5/1906, New York City, New York)
Title
Portrait of Charles Appleton Packard
Creation Date
1856
Century
19th-20th century
Dimensions
24 1/2 in. x 18 7/16 in. (62.23 cm x 46.83 cm)
Object Type
drawing
Creation Place
North America, United States
Medium and Support
charoal and pastel, with traces of graphite on brown wove paper
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. Charles Appleton Packard, Class of 1848
Copyright
Public Domain
Accession Number
1902.153
A Maine native, Eastman Johnson excelled in portraiture. He left for Europe in 1849 and received stellar training in Germany and then at The Hague. His work reveals his successful assimilation of the style and techniques of Rembrandt and other seventeenth-century Dutch masters, whom he admired. Johnson returned to America in 1855. During a studio visit by his friend Charles Packard, Johnson sketched his portrait while Packard examined one of his sketchbooks from The Hague; the walls are lined with canvases and a palette. With his deft use of dark tones in both the charcoal and brown paper, highlighted with white pastel, Johnson created a masterful, three-dimensional work. On presenting the drawing to Bowdoin, Packard recalled Johnson’s offer to take the portrait, perhaps because Packard was able “to secure for him some valuable commissions for portraits. . . . In a day or two the sketch was complete.”