BMA 1967.76.1

This little girl, posing outdoors, is about two or three years old. With one hand she points to an enormous yellow butterfly. The other hand holds a spray of pink roses. The child wears a long white gown trimmed with lace, white stockings, and red slippers. Around her neck she wears a strand of coral beads. Unfortunately the name of this child and the names of her parents have been lost.

For many years, little was known about the artist, Joshua Johnson. Piecing together information about his life and career has taken a good bit of detective work. Scholars have established that he operated a successful portrait-painting business in Baltimore and is one of the earliest African-American artists who can be identified by name. Johnson's early years remain a mystery, but scholars guess that he came to Maryland as a slave from the West Indies and somehow gained or purchased his freedom about 1790. He probably learned to paint while working as a house servant for Charles Willson Peale or Charles Peale Polk, both prominent Baltimore artists.

Joshua Johnson was one of many "free blacks" living and working in Baltimore around the turn of the century. Even though he was free, he always had to be on guard against those who might try to kidnap him and sell him back into slavery. Many of his neighbors were active members of Baltimore's "Abolitionist Society" which worked for the abolition of slavery and the protection of blacks. Johnson's neighbors recognized his exceptional artistic ability and apparently recommended him to prominent friends, relatives, and associates who needed the service of a portrait painter. Johnson's fine work proved to the skeptics that a black man could indeed be an artist. By 1798 he was well enough established to take out an advertisement in the Baltimore Intelligenceradvertising his own portrait business.

Joshua Johnson painted at least thirty portraits of Baltimore's most prominent families. Although most of his sitters were white, several were African-Americans. Johnson's success resulted from his ability to produce a formal portrait every bit as dignified and fashionable as the portraits painted in London and Paris.

Johnson's style closely follows the accepted formal portrait style of the day. His subjects sit or stand stiffly, slightly turned to one side. Their mouths are tightly set, betraying no emotion. Their eyes stare straight forward. Johnson usually gave his sitters a studio prop to hold, as was the fashion. Men hold a book or a letter to indicate their social standing as educated men of the world. Women and children hold flowers or fruit, a reference to fertility.

How did scholars learn about Joshua Johnson? Some information was gleaned from families who had inherited his paintings. One family reported being told that the artist was "the slave of a well-known artist." Another was told of "a Negro artist who suffered from consumption and was a servant or possibly a slave." The most helpful recollection was that "Joshua was the valet of Peale [and] was a very bright Black young man."

The most dependable information was acquired by scrutinizing old directories of the residents of Baltimore City. Annual Directory listings for a portrait painter named Joshua Johnson were found between 1796-1824. Since slaves were never listed in the Directory, we know that Johnson must have been a free man during those years. The 1816-1817 Directory lists Joshua Johnson specifically as a "Free Householder of Colour."