Joshua Johns[t]on ( – ) was an American painter from the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland of African and European ancestry. Johnson is known for his portrait paintings of prominent Maryland residents and their children. He was the "earliest documented professional African-American painter".

Life

thumb|left|John Jacob Anderson and Sons, John and Edward, , by Joshua Johnson, in the [[Brooklyn Museum]]

It was not until 1939 that the identity of the painter of elite late 18th- and early 19th-century Baltimoreans was discovered by art historian and genealogist J. Hall Pleasants, who believed that a man named Joshua Johnson painted a number of portraits, including thirteen attributed works. Pleasants attempted to put the puzzle of Johnson's life together; however, questions on Johnson's race, life dates, and even his last name (Johnson or Johnston) remained up until the mid-1990s, when the Maryland Historical Society released newly-found manuscripts regarding Johnson's life.

Documents dated July 25, 1782, state that Johnson was the "son of a white man and a black slave woman owned by a William Wheeler, Sr." His father, George Johnson (also spelled Johnston in some documents), purchased Joshua, age 19, from William Wheeler, a small Baltimore-based farmer, confirmed by a bill of sale dating from October 6, 1764.thumb|Captain Thomas Sprigg, -1810, by Joshua Johnson, last recorded in a private collection in Maryland Wheeler sold Johnson the young man for £25, half the average price of an enslaved male field hand at the time. The documents state little of Joshua's mother, not even her name, and she may have been enslaved by Wheeler, whose own records stated that he enslaved two women, one of whom had two children.

Freedom

Johnson received his freedom in 1782 and began advertising, identifying himself as a portrait painter and limner as of 1796. He moved frequently, residing often where other artists, specifically chair-makers, lived, which suggests that he may have provided extra income for himself by painting chairs. His frequent moving also may indicate that he tended to work for clients near whom he lived. No records mention educational or creative training, and it still has not been proven that he had any relationship with artists such as the Peale family, Ralph Earl, or Ralph Earl Jr.

His work, however, is more similar to lesser known limners who worked during the same time in the mid-Atlantic region, such as: John Drinker, Frederick Kemmelmeyer, Jacob Frymire and Caleb Boyle. Johnson may have been more than familiar with the work of these artists than previously thought; in 1818, he was commissioned by patron Rebecca Myring Everette to copy Boyle's 1807 portrait of her husband, Thomas Everett.

List of known works

  • Letitia Grace McCurdy (c.1800-1802), Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
  • Grace Allison McCurdy and Her Daughters, Mary Jane and Letitia Grace (c. 1804), Corcoran Gallery of Art
  • Mrs. Martha (Hall) Dorsey and Mary Ann Dorsey (), private collection
  • Potrait of a Gentleman (c. 1805), Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
  • Emma Van Name (), Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Portrait of a Cleric (c. 1805), Bowdoin College Museum of Art
  • McCormick Family (c.1805), Maryland Center for History and Culture
  • Unidentified Man (c. 1810), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • Unidentified Woman (c. 1810), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • John Jacob Anderson and Sons, John and Edward (), Brooklyn Museum
  • Charles Burnett (c. 1812), Maryland Center for History and Culture

References

  • The Westwood Children. The National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 2004-05-15
  • Selections of nineteenth-century Afro-American Art, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Joshua Johnson (no. 5)
  • Charles Herman Stricker Willmans, c. 1804, Baltimore Museum of Art
  • Johnson, Joshua - "Artist Info" National Gallery of Art