A working catalog of documented paintings and drawings by American painter and illustrator Benjamin Osro Eggleston, compiled from newspaper archives, auction records, and museum collections. In researching Benjamin Eggleston, a number of works have surfaced through old newspaper auctions and estate sales from the 1930’s that we thought might be interesting to collectors as his surviving works continue to surface through auctions. This is undoubtedly a small fraction of the hundreds of works he likely completed during his half century as a professional artist.
Oil Paintings
[Montreal Church Altarpiece Commission] (untitled)
Date: 1895 (in progress as of March 30, 1895)
Description: Large decorative canvas for an unidentified church in Montreal. Semi-circular form, designed for placement above the altar, with corner spaces to be covered by carved sections when installed. Subject: a chalice at the centre from which light radiates, illuminating the faces of cherubs in light clouds around the edge of the half circle.
Size: Eight or ten feet in height at the centre.
Current location: Unknown. Receiving church not identified.
Source: Times Union (Brooklyn), March 30, 1895, p. 6.
[Untitled winter landscape with figure]
Date: 1895
Description: Small oil described as “a striking little work of much action.” A girl in quaint-cut garments, blowing about her, hurrying across the foreground of a winter landscape.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Times Union (Brooklyn), March 30, 1895, p. 6.
Interior Scene with a Seated Woman
Date: 1894
Description: Oil on canvas, signed and dated lower left.
Size: 21.5 x 15.5 in.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: Fontaine’s Auction Gallery, January 2, 2022.
Le Temps Qui Passe
Date: c.1895–96
Description: Three female figures representing Past, Present, and Future before Father Time. Unanimously accepted by the jury at the Paris Salon.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Paris Salon exhibition record.
Harvest
Date: 1896
Description: “A pleasing and consistent study of golden autumnal coloring.” Exhibited at the (National) Academy.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Exhibition record, 1896.
Portrait of Miss E.
Date: 1898
Description: Life-size oil portrait. Sitter confirmed as Anna C. Eggleston, the artist’s sister. Exhibited at the Brooklyn Art Club (May 1898) and the National Academy of Design autumn exhibition (November 1898, Smith Gallery), where the New York Times praised its “well-posed and excellent painting of texture.” Reproduced in American Art Annual, Volume 1 (1898–99).
Size: Life-size; exact dimensions not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, May 17, 1898, p. 10; New York Times, November 5, 1898, p. 21.
A Daughter of Caesar
Date: Reviewed 1900
Description: Praised for “rich oriental coloring and fine transparent flesh tones.”
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Minneapolis Journal, March 28, 1900 (critic Martha Scott Anderson).
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln
Date: 1907
Description: Life-size posthumous portrait commissioned by members of the Lincoln Club of Brooklyn; unveiled at the club’s Lincoln Day banquet, February 12, 1907. Not a copy of any existing Lincoln image but a composite drawn principally from Mathew Brady’s Civil War negatives. Lincoln is depicted seated in a plain chair with no accessories. Eggleston spent a full year on the project. Authenticated by D. H. Bates and Charles A. Tinker, both Civil War cipher telegraph operators who had personally known Lincoln.
Size: Life-size, approximately seven feet, oil on canvas.
Current location: Unknown. The Lincoln Club of Brooklyn dissolved in 1931. A photographic reproduction signed in pencil by Eggleston (c. 28.5 x 36.5 cm) survives in the Alfred Whital Stern Collection of Lincolniana, Library of Congress.
Source: New-York Tribune, January 27, 1907, p. 55.
Old Lyme, Connecticut
Date: c.1910
Description: Estate stamp on verso.
Size: Oil on masonite, 12 x 14 in.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: Christie’s, March 14, 1995, Sale #7683, Lot 113; subsequently Heritage Auctions, Lot 19801.
Dreaming Summer
Date: Undated
Description: Highly praised in period reviews; purchased by the Boston Art Club.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Boston Art Club, per period record; current status unverified.
Source: Period exhibition/press record.
The Pioneer
Date: Undated
Description: Figure painting; sitter wore his grandfather’s leather coat and cap with powder horn.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Period press record.
Portrait in White
Date: Undated
Description: Considered by contemporaries his finest portrait.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Period press record.
Young Woman in a Landscape
Date: Undated
Description: Oil on canvas.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: Christie’s, New York, May 24, 1989 ($3,800); recorded in the Benezit entry for the artist.
Nude at Twilight
Date: Undated
Description: Barbizon-manner landscape with a central nude figure, housed in its original frame. Signed lower right.
Size: Oil on board, 8.75 x 9.75 in.
Current location: Private collection since 2012 sale. Formerly held by the Cincinnati Museum Center as part of the Lewis Cotlow Collection; deaccessioned and sold to benefit the museum’s collections.
Source: Sold May 18, 2012, $800.
Sunday at Grandmother’s
Date: 1934
Description: Praised at the Brooklyn Society of Artists annual exhibition.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: Exhibition record, 1934.
Rose
Date: Undated
Description: Highest recorded auction result for the artist to date.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: Cottone Auctions, 2016, $6,900.
Lord Robert Baden-Powell (portrait)
Date: 1936
Description: Portrait of the founder of the Boy Scouts, commissioned for the Brooklyn Council of the Boy Scouts. A dinner and dance was held in Eggleston’s honor at the Waldorf-Astoria. Signed lower left.
Size: Oil on canvas, 52 x 43 in.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale). Previously held by the BSA Settlement Trust, which consigned it to auction.
Source: Heritage Auctions, May 16, 2025, Lot #53161.
Portrait of Mrs. William Dodge Frost
Date: c.1930s
Description: Portrait commission.
Size: Oil on masonite, 18 x 15 in.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: DuMouchelles, May 19, 2023.
Sunlight Through the Forest Trees
Date: Undated
Description: Signed lower left. Verso bears a cataloguer’s label citing both Benezit and Fielding’s standard reference dictionaries.
Size: Sight 12 x 16 in. (framed 19 x 23 in.), oil on canvas.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: Burchard Galleries (St. Petersburg, FL), January 28, 2018, sold $400.
Woodland Landscape
Date: Late 19th–early 20th century
Description: A quiet woodland landscape with tall, slender trees extending through a softly atmospheric forest. The forest floor is rendered in warm autumnal tones of brown, ochre, and muted green, with fallen leaves, rocks, and undergrowth adding texture and depth. Framed in gilt wood, with a metal plaque depicting the artist’s name.
Size: Oil on canvas; frame 18 1/2 x 22 1/2 in., image 11 x 15 in.
Current location: Consigned to Akiba Galleries, pending sale.
Source: Akiba Galleries, sale August 25, 2026, Lot 131.
In the Sun (Landscape)
Date: Undated
Description: Landscape subject.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Listed by Benezit as a holding of the Brooklyn Institute Museum (the pre-1934 name of the Brooklyn Museum); not found in the museum’s current online collection database. Likely deaccessioned, retitled, or undigitized — unverified.
Source: Benezit Dictionary of Artists, ID B00057778.
Boy With Ducks, Out of Powder
Date: Undated (Midwest Illustration Series, c.1887–89)
Description: Genre scene.
Size: Oil on board, 10 x 8 in.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: Jackson Hole Art Auction, February 2023, sold $250 (estimate $400–600).
The Model
Date: 1891
Description: National Academy of Design debut work, exhibited alongside “The Cast Vender.”
Size: Medium and dimensions not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: National Academy of Design exhibition record, 1891.
The Cast Vender
Date: 1891
Description: National Academy of Design debut work, exhibited alongside “The Model.”
Size: Medium and dimensions not recorded.
Current location: Unknown.
Source: National Academy of Design exhibition record, 1891.
Graphite Drawings
Woman with a Dove
Date: 1885
Description: Eggleston’s earliest known dated work, predating any formal academic training. Subject: a young woman with upswept hair, eyes downcast, gentle smile, with a dove at her shoulder. Signed and dated lower right: “Eggleston ’85.”
Size: Graphite on paper; dimensions not recorded.
Current location: Darren and Jane Leno Family Collection. Provenance: Christie’s, March 1986, Lot 77; collection of Dennis Smith (founder of Firehouse Magazine); acquired by the Leno family in 2025.
Source: Christie’s auction record, March 1986, Lot 77.
Night
Date: Undated
Description: Graphite drawing.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Attributed to the Brooklyn Museum in secondary sources, but not confirmed in the museum’s current online collection database. Requires direct curatorial verification.
Source: Secondary-source attribution; unconfirmed.
Little Girl Holding an Apple
Date: 1927
Description: Graphite on cream wove paper. Signed lower left: “BENJAMIN EGGLESTON / 1927.” Classified by the museum as an orphaned work.
Size: Sheet 10 1/3 x 11 1/16 in.; image 6 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.
Current location: Brooklyn Museum, accession no. 75.187 (Dick S. Ramsay Fund).
Source: Brooklyn Museum collection record.
Pen-and-Ink Illustrations (Midwest Illustration Series, c.1887–89)
The Blamed Calf
Date: c.1887–89
Description: Pen-and-ink illustration, part of a group from Eggleston’s Minneapolis Tribune illustrator period.
Size: 2.5 x 5.5 in.
Current location: Private Midwest collection.
Source: Private Midwest collection record.
Shooting Prairie Hens
Date: c.1887–89
Description: Pen-and-ink illustration, part of a group from Eggleston’s Minneapolis Tribune illustrator period.
Size: Approx. 2.5 x 5.75 in.
Current location: Private Midwest collection.
Source: Private Midwest collection record.
Prairie Fire
Date: c.1887–89
Description: Pen-and-ink illustration, part of a group from Eggleston’s Minneapolis Tribune illustrator period.
Size: 3.5 x 5.5 in.
Current location: Private Midwest collection.
Source: Private Midwest collection record.
Sod Shanty or Half Dugout
Date: c.1887–89
Description: Pen-and-ink illustration, part of a group from Eggleston’s Minneapolis Tribune illustrator period.
Size: 2.75 x 6 in.
Current location: Private Midwest collection.
Source: Private Midwest collection record.
Westline School House in the 80s
Date: c.1887–89
Description: Pen-and-ink illustration, part of a group from Eggleston’s Minneapolis Tribune illustrator period.
Size: 2.75 x 6 in.
Current location: Private Midwest collection.
Source: Private Midwest collection record.
Buffalo Skull
Date: c.1887–89
Description: Pen-and-ink illustration. Verso has a taped invitation to the Painters and Sculptors of Brooklyn 9th Exhibition, Pratt Institute Art Gallery, February 4, 1931 — evidence the sheet remained in Eggleston’s possession into the 1930s.
Size: 3.5 x 5 in.
Current location: Private Midwest collection.
Source: Private Midwest collection record.
Prints and Reproductions
Portrait of Abraham Lincoln — photographic reproduction print (second copy)
Date: Copyright 1907
Description: Signed photographic print of the 1907 Lincoln portrait, separate from the copy held at the Library of Congress. This print was distributed to members of the Lincoln Club of Brooklyn to commemorate the completion of his major commissioned work.
Size: 7.25″ x 9.25″
Current location: Leno Family Collection, Fargo, ND
Dawn
Date: Copyright 1900
Description: A lone Native American man paddling a canoe on still water at daybreak — a soft-focus, tonalist composition. Eggleston’s only documented Native American subject. Known only through a published reproduction print issued by the Horace K. Turner Company of Boston as a “Turner Brown-Print” (medium of the underlying process undetermined; Turner kept it proprietary). Printed signature “BENJAMIN EGGLESTON” at lower left; printed copyright “Copyright 1900 By Benjamin Eggleston” at lower right; hexagonal Turner Co. blind stamp. Listed as no. 48, “Dawn,” in the Turner Co.’s Art Exhibit Catalogue, 1906–07 ($10.00, illustrated p. 26). The original painting is untraced.
Size: Sheet approx. 22 x 12 in.; framed (period quarter-sawn oak) 28.5 x 18.5 in.
Current location: Original painting untraced. At least two reproduction-print copies known: one via Atlee Raber Auctions (Dundee, OH), Lot 563, sale June 17, 2026; one via a WorthPoint resale listing (private collection). Not currently in the Leno collection.
Source: Horace K. Turner Co., Art Exhibit Catalogue, 1906–07, entry no. 48; Atlee Raber Auctions, Lot 563; WorthPoint resale listing.
Magazine Illustration Credits
Ainslee’s Magazine frontispiece
Date: April 1898
Description: Frontispiece illustration credited to Benjamin Eggleston.
Size: Magazine-page format; exact dimensions not recorded.
Current location: Survives only on the original unbound magazine issue; bound library holdings of Ainslee’s typically have covers/frontispieces stripped. Specific copy location not tracked.
Source: FictionMags Index; magazine contents page, April 1898.
Ainslee’s Magazine cover
Date: November 1901
Description: Cover design credited to Benjamin Eggleston (Vol. VII–VIII).
Size: Magazine-cover format; exact dimensions not recorded.
Current location: Survives only on the original unbound magazine issue; specific copy location not tracked.
Source: FictionMags Index; magazine contents page, November 1901.
Tracked but Not Yet Fully Confirmed
The Field
Date: ca. 1915
Description: Oil painting. Sold at Leonard Auction.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Private collection (unknown owner since sale).
Source: Leonard Auction; hammer price and lot number not yet confirmed.
Manor House (also called Manor House with Figures)
Date: Undated
Description: Oil painting, signed lower left. Tracked at high confidence, not yet fully confirmed. Provenance trail: a Litchfield, CT estate, through Capsule Auctions and Broward Auction Gallery (sale October 9, 2022, SKU 118290).
Size: Approx. 20 x 24 in.
Current location: eBay listing, item 316997513571, seller hu-9601 (Tampa, FL). Current owner beyond that listing unknown.
Source: eBay listing 316997513571; Capsule Auctions / Broward Auction Gallery, October 9, 2022, SKU 118290.
[Untitled Reclining Woman] — “Akiba canvas”
Date: Undated
Description: Oil painting of a reclining woman. Title unresolved: three open candidates under investigation — an autumn/vintage personification figure, a possible re-identification as “A Daughter of Caesar” (1900), or as “Harvest” (1896). The March 28, 1900 Minneapolis Journal review (Martha Scott Anderson) is the key unresolved arbiter for these hypotheses; none is currently confirmed, and this may or may not be the same physical object as one of the two titled works already listed above.
Size: Not recorded.
Current location: Surfaced via Akiba Galleries; current ownership not confirmed.
Source: Akiba Galleries listing; cross-referenced against Minneapolis Journal, March 28, 1900.
