The Old Stagecoach

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The Old Stagecoach
Old stagecoach eastman johnson.jpg
Artist Eastman Johnson
Year1871
Medium Oil on canvas
Movement Realism
Dimensions92 cm× 153 cm(36 in× 60 in)
Location Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Website http://collection.mam.org/details.php?id=19229

The Old Stagecoach is an 1871 painting by American painter Eastman Johnson. [1] Occasionally written as The Old Stage Coach or The Old Stage-Coach, the painting is considered one of Johnson's finest and best known works, second only to his Antebellum masterpiece Negro Life at the South (also known as Old Kentucky Home). [2]

Contents

Description

Jennifer Greenhill described the canvas in her book Playing It Straight:

"In it, a group of rural children collaborates to make a dilapidated stagecoach burst into action. Some serve as passengers, others as horses, still others as guides to the imaginary landscapes of their minds." [3]

Johnson painted the canvas at his studio in Nantucket, Massachusetts. [3] It has been described as his most genial work. [4]

Display

The Old Stagecoach is in the permanent collection of the Milwaukee Art Museum. In the Spring of 2017 the museum built an exhibition around the painting entitled, "Eastman Johnson and a Nation Divided." [5] [6]

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References

  1. Wierich Havlice, Jochen (2012). Grand Themes: Emanuel Leutze, Washington Crossing the Delaware, and American History Painting. Pennsylvania: Penn State Press. p. xiii. ISBN   9780271050324.
  2. Artists of the Nineteenth Century and Their Works a Handbook Containing Two Thousand and Fifty Biographical Sketches by Clara Erskine Clement and Laurence Hutton, Volume 2. Pennsylvania: Trübner. 1879. p. 11-12.
  3. 1 2 Greenhill, Jennifer A. (2012). Playing It Straight: Art and Humor in the Gilded Age. Berkeley: Univ of California Press. p. 54. ISBN   9780520272453.
  4. Burns, Sarah. (2009). American Art to 1900: A Documentary History. Berkeley: Univ of California Press. p. 570-571. ISBN   9780520272453.
  5. "Art Comes to Life for Groups at the Milwaukee Art Museum". Leisure Group Travel. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  6. Sarah Hauer (10 February 2017). "'The Old Stagecoach' centerpiece of new Milwaukee Art Museum exhibit". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Retrieved 1 July 2019.