Joshua Johnson

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Not to be confused with Joshua J. Johnson.

Joshua Johnson (c.1763–1832) was the first African American painter to make his living in painting.

1 Biography
2 Artistry
- 2.1 The Westwood Children
3 References

[edit] Biography

Johnson was apparently self trained in his art. He worked for thirty years from 1795 to 1825. He produced some paintings with Baltimore crone related subject matter including portraits of local merchants, ship captains and shopkeepers. Affluent Baltimore families commissioned him paint portraits. No other artist in Maryland painted as many portraits of children and their parents during this period. More is known about the people Johnson painted than the artist himself. Few clues survive to help piece together the identity and life of Joshua Johnson. This was common among America’s free African American community at the time.

Baltimore at the time had a large free African American population: In 1810, free blacks outnumbered enslaved individuals two to one. The Maryland Historical Society owns a record dated at 1782 record documenting Joshua’s freedom at age 20. It is not clear whether the Joshua Johnson, said to be an apprentice blacksmith, of this record is the same Joshua Johnson marked as a painter in the later 1796 record. Census records show that Johnson moved frequently through Baltimore and its Fells Point neighborhood. He may have been owned by a painter as a house servant during his youth.

[edit] Artistry

Scholar J. Hall Pleasants characterizes Johnson’s style as peculiarly rigid in the hands, feet, arms and legs. Subjects in many of his works are often shown in three quarter view holding objects such as books, riding crops, letters, basket, parasol, pencil, sextant, fruit or cake. He depicts settees with brass tacks and backgrounds are dark and somber with dark or red curtains. Pleasants associates Peale-Polk family of portraitists as they share linear and hard paintings. Also like the Peale-Polk family of painting, they are well-executed, deliberate and attractive works. Charles Peale Polk's work is the most similar to Johnsons. Both handle arms and legs stiffly and are similarly scarce and two dimensional. They both would apply paint sparingly as well, Pleasants notes. In fact, it is possible that Charles Peale Polk taught Johnson.

[edit] The Westwood Children

In his painting, The Westwood Children, Johnson depicts the male children of Margaret and John Westwood. Westwood was a successful Baltimore stagecoach manufacturer. This painting is on display at the National Gallery of Art. The painting depicts the black family dog holding a bird in it’s mouth. The three children hold flowers in their hands. The painting is stylized and each of the children have chilled expressionless stares. The youngest child seems to be on the verge of smiling. The children are positioned to the left of the work and the left edge is dark. The black dog on the right side of the painting adds some weight although the painting still feels somewhat imbalanced. Also the background shows an alcove on the right which adds a slight amount of weight there.