An exhibition in the
MaryLou and George Boone Gallery
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
May 8 - August 1, 2004

One of the most important American artists of the nineteenth century, Eastman Johnson (1824-1906) produced a number of paintings that now stand as icons of American culture. While Johnson is best known for his portraits of distinguished members of society, representations of black life in the South, and scenes of cranberry harvests on Nantucket Island, one of his most intriguing projects revolved around his efforts to produce a major picture depicting a "sugaring off" in New England.

Sugaring Off

The sugaring off was a raucous party in the woods attended by farmers and villagers celebrating the production of the first batch of molten maple sugar from sap and, in effect, the beginning of spring. Sugar season began, as it does today, with a late-winter break in frigid weather. The trees are "tapped" by chopping a slanted notch into the maple bark, driving a gouge into the tree beneath the notch, and inserting a wooden shingle or trough in the gouge. The clear sap drips from the trough into a bucket from which it is collected and heated until it becomes dark, sweet syrup. Throughout the 1860s and early 1870s, Johnson made approximately twenty-five paintings relating to maple sugar, using the sugaring-off festival to explore a wide range of New England characters. Fascinated by the subject, Johnson invested more time and effort into this epic project than any other in his career. Working in a specially constructed studio built on wheels, he spent every spring for five years recording the activities at the sugar camps in Fryeburg, Maine. This exhibition reunites sixteen paintings from the resulting series.

Social Context

While Johnson's maple sugar paintings might at first appear to be straightforward nostalgic scenes of a traditional New England activity, they were intended to communicate a powerful message about freedom and independence. Given the context of the Civil War, Johnson turned to maple sugar as a subject with specific political connotations. It has been estimated that about two-thirds of the twenty million slaves taken from Africa to America labored to produce cane sugar, which was exported to Europe and later sold in urban American markets. A strong supporter of the Union cause, Johnson identified maple sugar, created by free people in their own community, as a valuable alternative to cane sugar produced by slaves. Similarly, the sugaring off served as an example of communally based work in harmony with nature and as a symbol of unity in a country divided by war.

Maple sugar was also rooted in the heritage and history of the republic. Native Americans pioneered the production of maple sugar. It nourished the nation's earliest white settlers and was the most important household sweetener in the northern colonies as early as 1675. Maple sugar continued to be widely used throughout the eighteenth century when white cane sugar was considered a great luxury. Many believed that maple sugar provided an answer to achieving sugar self-sufficiency and, as part of the overall drive for commercial independence, played a role in forging the nation. Given the position of maple sugar in political and moral debates, Johnson could well have understood the subject as a metaphor for the larger themes implicit in the establishment of the nation.

Art in the Making

Johnson's sugaring-off paintings provide an important glimpse into the artist's process as a painter. Depicting as many as forty-two figures, the sugaring-off pictures are complex and experimental. Some are oil sketches, rough drawings in paint, while others are more carefully finished. Many of the paintings are studies for what might have been the largest work of Johnson's career (fig. 2). For example, Sugaring Off at Camp, Fryeburg, Maine (fig. 3) is a smaller version of the full sugaring-off composition, while The Huntington's painting Sugaring Off (fig. 1) concentrates on the right side of the scene. Despite his sustained interest in the subject, Johnson never finished a large-scale painting of the full sugaring-off party, completing only smaller compositions that explore specific aspects of the subject. All of the maple sugar pictures remained in his studio until his death in 1906, after which they were dispersed at the auction of his estate.

Changing Tastes

Unfortunately, the timing of the sugar sketches does not seem to have been auspicious for finding a patron and finishing the project. While sugar making might have impressed Johnson as a national symbol, as a practical matter, its wider moral significance was probably too cryptic for his audience. By the mid-nineteenth century, maple sugar was rarely used in urban, northeastern America, which overwhelmingly preferred cane sugar, regardless of its source of production. Taste in art was changing as well. As the 1860s progressed, Johnson's patrons began to prefer smaller paintings featuring women and children to larger scenes such as the sugaring off. In keeping with these preferences, the only painting related to sugar making that Johnson is known to have completed, signed and dated, On Their Way to Camp (fig. 4), focuses on young people engaged in work and play. Meanwhile, the activities of the sugar camp, and any political issues they might suggest, recede into the background.

This exhibition was organized by the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts and made possible, in part, by a gift from Steve Martin.

© 2004, Huntington Library. All rights reserved.
The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens
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