Eastman Johnson (1824-1906)
Oil on canvas, 1899
Gift of the Partnership for New York City, Inc.
NYSM 2003.41.34

Amos Richards Eno began amassing his fortune as a wholesale drygoods merchant. On the eve of the Civil War he turned his attention to real estate investment and development, and at his death was one of the wealthiest men in New York City. He was a founder of the Second National Bank in 1863. His lavish, marble-fronted Fifth Avenue Hotel, which stood at Broadway and Fifth Avenue, opened in 1860.

After 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. Eno’s family engaged Johnson to paint this posthumous portrait to be presented to the Chamber of Commerce.