Artwork
The Toilet
The Toilet is an oil painting by the American Impressionist artist Eastman Johnson. It dates from 1873 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower right: E. Johnson / 1873
About this work
Technique & Style
Classified as a painting, the piece utilizes oil as its primary medium, a standard material for the artist during this period.
Executed in 1873, this work is an oil painting applied to a paper board support. The composition measures 66.36 cm in height and 56.2 cm in width. Classified as a painting, the piece utilizes oil as its primary medium, a standard material for the artist during this period.
The physical object has survived in a condition suitable for inclusion in major institutional collections, having passed through private hands before entering the Corcoran Gallery of Art and subsequently the National Gallery of Art. No specific details regarding the surface handling, brushwork texture, or current conservation status are provided in the available records, though the integrity of the paper board mount and oil layer is implied by its continued exhibition history.
History & Provenance
The Toilet was painted by Eastman Johnson in 1873 as an oil on paper board work. It entered the collection of James Sloan by 1875 and was likely lent to the 1875 National Academy of Design exhibition in New York.[1] Nathan Guilford acquired the painting before April 1883 and bequeathed it to his widow Mary Wallace Guilford, who passed it to their daughter Mary Wallace Stewart and subsequently to her sons Guilford Stewart and Ralph Aldace Stewart, Jr. The work remained in the Stewart family until its sale through Childs Gallery in Boston, after which it was purchased by the Corcoran Gallery of Art in October 1957 and later acquired by the National Gallery of Art in 2015.[1]
The Toilet is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., where it was acquired in 2015. Its accession number is not specified in the provided sources. The work has been part of several exhibitions, beginning with a loan to the 1875 annual exhibition at the National Academy of Design in New York, and later included in a 1957 acquisition by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which subsequently transferred it to the National Gallery of Art.
Overview
Eastman Johnson’s 1873 work titled The Toilet is executed in oil on paperboard. The composition captures a solitary woman in a dark, floor‑length dress as she stands before a dresser, gazing into a mirror. The setting is a modestly furnished interior, its wallpaper and curtains framing a quiet, personal moment.
Subject & Meaning
The figure’s attentive pose, reflected in the mirror, suggests a private ritual of self‑examination or preparation. Objects on the dresser, a vase of flowers, bottles, and a small box, hint at everyday domestic concerns, reinforcing the painting’s focus on intimate, everyday life rather than grand narrative.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Jonathan Eastman Johnson (July 29, 1824 – April 5, 1906) was an American painter and co-founder of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, with his name inscribed at its entrance.
