A Tough Story
Artist
John George Brown
American, born Great Britain, 1831–1913
Date1886
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions25 x 30 1/8 in. (63.5 x 76.5 cm)
Frame: 32 3/8 x 37 1/4 in. (82.2 x 94.6 cm)
Frame: 32 3/8 x 37 1/4 in. (82.2 x 94.6 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the State of North Carolina
Object number52.9.5
On View
Not on view[1] Hammer Galleries invoice no. 15330, inventory no. 15330-1
Published ReferencesW. R. Valentiner, Catalogue of Paintings: Including Three Sets of Tapestries (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1956), no. 5.
S(tella) S(uberman), "August-September Loan John G. Brown Paintings," North Carolina Museum of Art Calendar 8 (August-September 1965), illus. (b-w).
American Paintings to 1900: Catalogue of Paintings, Vol. 1, 2nd ed. (Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, 1966), no. 6, illus. (b-w).
Charles W. Stanford, Jr., Selections from British and American Painting and Sculpture (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1967), cat. no. 28, illus. (b-w).
Genre, Portrait, and Still Life Painting in America: The Victorian Era (exhibition catalogue) (Bloomfield Hills: Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, 1973), cat. no. 4, illus. (b-w).
Patricia Hills, The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910 (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Praeger, 1974), discussed 115, illus. (b-w) fig. 141.
Patricia Hills, "The Painters' America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910," Antiques 106 (October 1974): 646-647, discussed 647, illus. (b-w) fig. 3.
American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art (brochure) (Charlotte: Mint Museum of Art, 1975), no. 6, illus. (b-w).
JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 242 (September 21, 1979), illus. (color) cover.
Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 246.
Natalie Spassky, et al, American Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. II, Kathleen Luhrs, ed. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1985), mentioned 338-39.
Lisa N. Peters, "Images of the Homeless in America Art, 1860-1910," in On Being Homeless: Historical Perspectives (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Museum of the City of New York, 1987), discussed 48, illus. (b-w) fig. 11.
Martha J. Hoppin, Country Paths and City Sidewalks: The Art of John G. Brown (exhibition catalogue) (Springfield, MA: George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, 1989), discussed 22-25, illus. (b-w) fig. 19.
"Youngsters of Yore," Colonial Homes 15 (October 1989), 62-65, illus. (color) 64.
"J. G. Brown Paintings on Loan through 1989," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Summer 1989), 13, illus. (b-w)
Gladys S. Blizzard, Come Look with Me: Enjoying Art with Children (Charlottesville, VA: Thomasson-Grant, 1990), 25, illus. (color) 24. Second edition (Watertown, MA: Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc., 2006)
Kathleen S. Placidi, "Beyond Bootblacks: The Boat Builder and the Art of John George Brown," The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 77 (December 1990), 366-382, noted 366, illus. (b-w) fig. 1.
Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 242.
Penny Saville Fregeau, "Nudging the Pendulum," Classical Realism Journal 1, no. 2 (1994), briefly discussed 43, illus. 42.
John W. Coffey, entry for A Tough Story, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, Rebecca Martin Nagy, ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1998), 207, illus. (color).
John Coffey, "From the Permanent Collection - The Presentable Poor: Images of Children," Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (March/April 2002), briefly discussed 11, illus. (color).
Lisa Duffy Zeballos, "John George Brown's A Tough Story," in Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery 6 (September/October 2004), discussed and illus. (page numbers unknown: copy in file).
Claire Perry, Young America: Childhood in 19th Century Art and Culture (published on the occasion of the "American ABC" exhibition listed in Exhibition History) (New Haven: Yale University Press in association with the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, 2006), discussed 137, illus. (color) 138, fig. 115.
“Highlights of the American Collection,” in North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Spring 2009), discussed and illus. (color) 8.
John W. Coffey, entry for A Tough Story, in North Carolina Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2010), 428, illus. (color) 429.
Leo G. Mazow, "Taxing Visions and the 'Decent Distance'," in Taxing Visions: Financial Episodes in Late Nineteenth-Century American Art (exhibition catalogue), (University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University and the Huntington Library, 2010), briefly discussed 11-12, 44, illus. (color) 12, fig. 7 (catalogue only, not in exhibition).
Martha Hoppin, The World of J. G. Brown (Chesterfield, MA: Chameleon Books, 2010), discussed 159-160, illus. (color) 162.
Richard Krawiec, "A Tough Story" in “You Are the River: Literature Inspired by the North Carolina Museum of Art,” edited by Helena Feder (Raleigh, NC: North Carolina Museum of Art, 2021), illus (color) 52.
Exhibition HistoryBloomfield Hills, MI, Cranbrook Academy of Art Museum, "Genre, Portrait, and Still Life Painting in America: The Victorian Era," August 26-September 30, 1973, no. 4, illus. (b-w).
New York, NY, Whitney Museum of American Art, "The Painter's America: Rural and Urban Life, 1810-1910," September 20-November 10, 1974; Houston, TX, Museum of Fine Arts, December 5, 1974-January 19, 1975; Oakland, CA, Oakland Museum, February 10-March 30, 1975, discussed 115, illus. (b-w) fig. 141.
Charlotte, NC, Mint Museum of Art, "American Paintings from the Collection of the North Carolina Museum of Art," September 7-October 19, 1975, no. 6, illus. (b-w).
New York, NY, Museum of the City of New York, "On Being Homeless: An Historical Perspective," November 24, 1987- March 27, 1988, illus. (b-w).
Springfield, MA, George Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, "Country Paths and City Sidewalks: The Art of John G. Brown," March 19-May 21, 1989; New York, NY, The National Academy of Design, July 10-September 18, 1989; Omaha, NE, Joslyn Art Museum, October 13-December 3, 1989, no. 44, illus. (b-w) fig. 19.
Stanford, CA, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, "American ABC: Childhood in 19th Century America," February 1-May 5, 2006; Washington, DC, Smithsonian American Art Museum, July 4-September 17, 2006; Portland, ME, Portland Museum of Art, November 1, 2006-January 7, 2007 (see References for book published on the occasion of this exhibition).
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, Highlights of the American Collection, February 15-August 2, 2009.
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