The Pet Lamb
Artist
Eastman Johnson
(American, 1824 - 1906)
Date1873
MediumOil on cardboard
DimensionsFramed: 28 1/2 x 33 x 2in. (72.4 x 83.8 x 5.1cm)
Overall: 22 x 26 1/2in. (55.9 x 67.3cm)
Overall: 22 x 26 1/2in. (55.9 x 67.3cm)
ClassificationsPAINTINGS
Credit LineMuseum Purchase in Memory of Roy C. Van Denbergh
Terms
Object number76.6
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightNo known copyright restrictions.
Label TextEastman Johnson painted this work in 1873 at a time when, following his marriage several years earlier, scenes of domestic life began to appear with some regularity in his art. In the spring of that year Johnson exhibited the work at the Century Club in New York. In 1874 a reproductive engraving of the painting was published by C. Klackner in New York City. By 1876 the work was owned by George M. Pullman and was exhibited that year at the Chicago Interstate Industrial Exposition. One reading of the picture is that Johnson is drawing a parallel between the compliant nature of the pet lamb and the type of behavior that was expected from women in 19th-century American genteel society.
Paul D. Schweizer
