Art Institute of Chicago
Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket
Eastman Johnson (American, 1824–1906)LinkedCulture matchlcp-f7bdee3e98db
- Date
- 1876
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- Nantucket Island
- Department
- Arts of the Americas
- Institution
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Object ID
- 81564
From the Art Institute of Chicago record
Eastman Johnson painted this composition in 1876, 100 years after the founding of the United States. The centennial fostered a sense of nostalgia among some residents as industrialization and urban growth rapidly transformed the nation. Husking Bee, Island of Nantucket depicts a seasonal gathering on the rural Massachusetts island. Community members work together to shuck corn and ready the harvest, a traditional activity that was far removed from daily life for many in the late 19th century. Johnson employed a warm palette and loose brushwork to describe this agrarian subject, presenting an uncomplicated vision of cooperation and closeness to the land.
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Provenance & credit
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- Credit line
- Gift of Honoré and Potter Palmer
- Provenance
- Eastman Johnson, New York, Jan-Feb. 1876 [lent to National Academy of Design 1876]. Napoleon Sarony (1821–1896), New York, by May 1878 [lent to Paris Exposition Universelle International 1878 and Chicago Inter–State Industrial Exposition 1882]. Potter (1826–1902) and Bertha Palmer (1849–1918; born Bertha Honoré, also Mrs. Potter Palmer), Chicago, 1889; by descent to his wife, Bertha Palmer, 1902 [lent to Art Institute of Chicago 1910]; by descent to her sons, Honoré Palmer (1874–1964) and Potter Palmer II (1875–1943), 1918; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1922.
Linked open data
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- Object type
- AAT300033618
Part of a LinkedCulture topic
American Landscape and Coastal PaintingsThese works are 19th-century oil paintings depicting natural landscapes and seascapes from the northeastern United States, particularly coastal New England regions and rocky shores.
140 objects from 4 institutions
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