Sarah Ogden Gustin

c. 1805

Joshua Johnson

Associated Names
Joshua Johnson

Artist, American, born c. 1763, active 1796 - 1824

This painting shows a seated woman depicted from the knees up. She is sitting in a dark reddish-brown chair with a dark green cushion, her body turned slightly to the left, facing the viewer. She has both arms resting on her lap, her left hand holding a small twig with round green leaves and her right hand holding a small book open. She has light skin, dark brown eyes, thin eyebrows, thin pink lips set in a neutral expression, and dark curly hair styled away from her face and adorned with a white headband. She wears a dark red dress with lace detailing around the neckline and the cuffs of the short sleeves. The background features a dark gray wall on the right, with a white window on the left providing a view of an outdoor scene with leafy green trees and a sky that is a gradient of light gray and light blue, with light pink at the horizon.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery M63

Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

This painting looks like a family portrait with five people: two seated adults and three children. The person on the far left is a seated woman with dark hair styled up and short, curling bangs, wearing a gray dress with puffed sleeves and lace details at the neckline. She holds a folded piece of paper in her lap and has one arm around the girl next to her. On her right stand two young girls with curly reddish-brown hair tied back, both dressed in white dresses with puffed sleeves and lace around the necklines. The girl to the left holds a pink flower, while the other holds a small pink bud. On their right is a seated man with short reddish-brown hair, wearing a dark jacket over a yellow vest and a white cravat and green trousers, holding a small book partially open. Standing to the right, partially behind the man, is a young boy dressed in a green coat with gold buttons over a pink vest and white shirt. All five of the people have pale skin. Behind the family is a black semi-circle, and around that is a gradient of brown, darker at the top and lighter towards the bottom.

Article:  Who Is Joshua Johnson? 7 Things to Know

The Maryland-based artist is one of America’s earliest-documented  professional Black portraitists.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Recorded as from Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. Descended in the family of the sitter, probably to her sister-in-law, Delilah Gustin Hunter; probably to her son, William Hunter, Sr.; to his daughter, Emily Frances Hunter (Mrs. George Cross); to her daughter, Mrs. Daisy (Cross) Somers; to her cousin, Katherine Mahon Hunter;[1] by whom sold in 1961 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; gift to NGA, 1971.
[1] According to Jessie Hunter, the wife of William Hunter, a descendant of Katherine (Katy) Mahon Hunter, Daisy Somers was cleaning out her attic and had decided only to keep the frame of the portrait. She had already placed the canvas with a pile of things to be burned. Katy Hunter rescued the portrait and brought it home with her. (Undated curator's notes from conversation with Jessie Hunter, in NGA curatorial file.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1975

  • Jacob Frymire--American Limner, traveling exhibition, 1975-1976, no. 37, (cat. by Linda Crocker Simmons). First venue: Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington.

1981

  • Charles Peale Polk (1767-1822), A Limner and His Likenesses, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg; Dayton Art Institute; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Heritage Plantation of Sandwich, Massachusetts, 1981-1982, no. x.171.

1983

  • [Loan to display with new acquisition by Joshua Johnson], Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1983-1984.

1985

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 40, color repro., detail p. 24. First venue: Museum of American Folk Art, New York.

  • Sharing Traditions, Five Black Artists in Nineteenth-Century America, National Museum of American Art, Washington, circulated by SITES, 1985-1988, figs. 1 and 2 (shown only in Washington, 1985).

1987

  • Joshua Johnson: Freeman and Early American Portrait Painter, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, 1987-1988, no. 4, color repro. (not shown at two Whitney Museum venues, NY and Stamford, CT).

1988

  • La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca'Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 40, repro.

Bibliography

1980

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 185, repro.

1981

  • Rumford, Beatrix T., ed. American Folk Portraits: Paintings and Drawings from the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center. Boston, 1981: 132-133.

1985

  • Harrington, Lynda Roscoe. Sharing Traditions: Five Black Artists in Nineteenth-Century America. Exh. cat. National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC, 1985: 40-41, fig. 1-2, cat. 2, 44, 46, 49, note 6.

1987

  • Weekley, Carolyn. "Joshua Johnson." Antiques 132 (September): color pl. 1.

1992

  • Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 230-232, color repro. 231.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 214, repro.

2021

  • Fulco, Daniel. "Joshua Johnson: Pioneer of American Portraiture." Joshua Johnson: Portraitist of Early American Baltimore. Hagerstown, MD, 2021: 22, 98, fig. 21.

Inscriptions

lower left on top right-hand page of book: JOSHU[A]JOHNSON; and below: JJ (in monogram)

Wikidata ID

Q20181976

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