The Young Sweep

1863

Eastman Johnson American, 1824-1906

On View

American, Level 2, West Wing

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About the Artwork

A young chimney sweep stares warily at the implied viewer, defensively clutching a scraper to his chest. In this sensitive but unsentimental portrait, Eastman Johnson painted a familiar subject — the children, most often African American boys, some as young as six years old, who did the poorly paid and dangerous labor of climbing the narrow insides of chimneys to scrape and collect soot. Not only did this work reduce the threat of devastating house fires, but the sweeps’ dirty harvest could be sold as fertilizer by their employers.
Johnson completed two versions of this painting in early 1863, a month or two after President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing all enslaved people living in Confederate states. Johnson was a strong supporter of Lincoln’s efforts to both preserve the Union and abolish slavery. In March 1863, he donated one of the two paintings to an art auction that raised funds to support the Union effort.

Title The Young Sweep

Artwork Date 1863

Artist Eastman Johnson

Life Dates 1824-1906

Nationality Please note: Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events. Some definitions include: Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation. American

Culture Please note: Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group. ----------

Medium Oil on canvas

Dimensions Unframed: 12 × 10 inches (30.5 × 25.4 cm) Framed: 18 1/2 × 16 1/2 inches (47 × 41.9 cm)

Classification Paintings

Department American Art before 1950

Credit Gift of the Associates of the American Wing, Fifty Years of Service, (1967-2017)

Accession Number This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection. Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings. For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups. 2018.22

Markings

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Provenance

(Clars Auction Gallery, Oakland, California, USA);
2018-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)

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Exhibition History

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Published References

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Catalogue Raisoneé

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Credit Line for Reproduction

Eastman Johnson, The Young Sweep, 1863, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of the Associates of the American Wing, Fifty Years of Service, (1967-2017), 2018.22.