Corn Husking at Nantucket

Eastman Johnson

ca. 1875 · Oil on canvas · The American Wing

This picture was probably Johnson’s final study for a large painting of 1876, now in the Art Institute of Chicago. As urbanization and industrialization increased in the late nineteenth century, both European and American painters celebrated preindustrial labor, often featuring indigenous crops in historically resonant regions. Johnson, for example, painted several series of works highlighting maple sugaring, cranberry picking, and corn husking in New England. Especially evident in this canvas is the residue of Johnson’s studies in France with Thomas Couture, who valued the freshness of the sketch, even in completed canvases.

Artist

Eastman Johnson

Date

ca. 1875

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1907