New Acquisition

Eastman Johnson: Nantucket Historical Association

A rare and rediscovered painting by Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), thought to have been lost, has been recently acquired by the Nantucket Historical Association. The oil painting, Cranberry Pickers, c. 1877, depicts a man and woman harvesting cranberries on Nantucket’s north shore.

“The NHA is thrilled to add this important painting to our permanent collection,” says Niles Parker, Gosnell executive director. Eastman Johnson is one of the most significant 19th-century American painters... This major acquisition allows us to better preserve Johnson’s Nantucket oeuvre and celebrate this era of the island’s history. We are grateful to our donors and the friends of the Nantucket Historical Association for their generous support.”

Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), Cranberry Pickers, circa 1877. Oil on cradled panel, 20 x 30.” Courtesy Nantucket Historical Association.

While Johnson extensively trained abroad, living and working in places like Germany and the Hague, Netherlands, he is most associated with the island of Nantucket—summering there with his wife for decades, and inspiring some of his most “enduring works as a major genre painter, portraitist and chronicler of American life,” says the NHA.

NHA representatives also note that the Cranberry Pickers is one of approximately twenty works Johnson created in preparation for his masterpiece Cranberry Harvest, Island of Nantucket, 1880, which is now in the collection of the Timken Museum in San Diego.

“With this view of a cranberry harvest, he successfully realized his efforts to paint a celebration of New England outdoor life,” shares Timken representatives of the painting Cranberry Harvest. “The work also marks a significant achievement in the history of American art. Using an evocative, rather than descriptive technique, Johnson lavishes attention on the landscape, from the dry grasses of the cranberry bog to the distant and accurate view of Nantucket’s spires and lighthouse…”

Although Cranberry Pickers can be seen as preparation for Cranberry Harvest, the NHA points out that “[the painting] is extremely unusual because it is both a study and a stand-alone work that, in its specificity and beauty, surpasses all the other images Johnson produced related to his final Cranberry Harvest painting.”

The newly acquired piece will be on view to the public beginning this summer at the Whaling Museum and will be featured in an exhibition combining Eastman Johnson and Winslow Homer paintings of women at the NHA in 2025.