Eastman Johnson
Although Eastman Johnson is best known today for his depictions of life in late 19th-century America, he derived most of his income from portraiture. Starting in the mid-1840s, he secured important portrait commissions through his father’s political connections. Following a period of study in Europe, Johnson divided his efforts between portraits and genre pictures. After the turmoil of the Civil War, his narrative scenes offered views of American communities and family life.
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This painting depicts “boiling day,” when the season’s first harvest of maple tree sap was heated to produce syrup or sugar. Community members have gathered near the hot iron cauldron to talk, play music, dance, and eat. This image would have offered urban viewers a respite from imagery of the Civil War, though one Vermonter noted that maple sugar “is a product of our state, and it is never tinctured with the sweat, and the groans, and the tears, and the blood of the poor slave.”
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd
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