Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)
Oil on canvas, 1886
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.117

As owner of T. B. Coddington and Company, with offices in New York City and Liverpool, England, Thomas Coddington amassed considerable wealth as a metals merchant. In 1887 his daughter Fannie married “Pen” Browning, only child of English poets Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

About 1880, Eastman Johnson, who was among mid-19th century America’s most famous genre painters, turned his attention primarily to filling numerous formal portrait commissions. Coddington’s family engaged Johnson to paint this posthumous portrait to be presented to the Chamber of Commerce.