John Christen Johansen (1876-1974), Margaret Stewart, 1930 |

Oil on canvas, unframed: 56 1/4 x 36 1/8 in. (142.88 x 91.76 cm) |
Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Devore Bequest) |

CGA.DA 58.9copy 

 

The sitter’s daughter commissioned this copy after another portrait that Johansen made of Stewart. Margaret Stewart was married to a congressman from Wisconsin and lived in Washington, DC for over 30 years. Her other daughter gifted the original portrait, the copy, and a pendant portrait of Margaret’s husband to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1958. In the early twentieth century, it was not uncommon for wealthy Americans to commission multiple iterations of a portrait for various sites. Johansen himself painted three portraits each of two other people the same year that he made the copy of Margaret. Hung in homes and institutions, these paintings visualized the subjects’ wealth and cemented their social status. As the twentieth century progressed, museums became more invested in original works of art, but such copies raise important questions about the cultural and monetary value of painting.