The Artists

Joshua Johnson
Who was Joshua Johnson?

Joshua Johnson, The Artists

Unknown for 100 years

In the early 1800s an itinerant artist painted a series of moody, arresting portraits of the Maryland elite. For more than a century the artist of these naïve portraits was unknown, until in 1939 the historian J. Hall Pleasants attributed them to a mysterious man named Joshua Johnson. In 1996 concrete information about Johnson finally emerged, when the Maryland Historical Society’s Department of Manuscripts discovered local historical records including Joshua Johnson’s manumission record.

Discovering Joshua Johnson

Joshua Johnson was the son of George Johnson, a white man, and a black slave woman who’s name was undocumented. George purchased his son from his mother’s owner for 25 pounds, and promised to free him on his 21st birthday or on the completion of an apprenticeship to a blacksmith. Joshua Johnson was freed in 1782, and was listed shortly after as a portrait painter in the Baltimore city directories.

We have no records of Johnson’s artistic training, and little knowledge of his life outside of his formal portraits and the calm, direct gaze of his sitters. Johnson appears a few more times in Maryland records, where we learn he married twice, and had four children. We don’t know where he died, or if he made any portraits outside of Baltimore, and the only words we have from the artist himself is from an advertisement Johnson posted in the Baltimore Intelligencer newspaper published on December 19, 1798. Johnson describes himself as a self-taught genius, who had “experienced many insuperable obstacles in the pursuit of his studies.”

Reed Enger, "Joshua Johnson, Who was Joshua Johnson?," in Obelisk Art History, Published April 02, 2016; last modified November 06, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/joshua-johnson/.

nga.gov
bowdoin.edu

Joshua Johnson was a U.S. Outsider Artist born in 1763. Johnson died in 1824.

Family Group, Joshua Johnson

Family Group 1800

Edward and Sarah Rutter, Joshua Johnson

Edward and Sarah Rutter 1805

Portrait of Adelia Ellender, Joshua Johnson

Portrait of Adelia Ellender 1803 – 1805

Sarah Ogden Gustin, Joshua Johnson

Sarah Ogden Gustin 1805

Grace Allison McCurdy and her Daughters, Mary Jane and Letitia Grace, Joshua Johnson

Grace Allison McCurdy and her Daughters, Mary Jane and Letitia Grace 1806

Adelina Morton, Joshua Johnson

Adelina Morton 1810

Mrs. Barbara Baker Murphy, Joshua Johnson

Mrs. Barbara Baker Murphy 1810

Portrait of Abner Coker, Joshua Johnson

Portrait of Abner Coker 1805 – 1810

Sea Captain John Murphy, Joshua Johnson

Sea Captain John Murphy 1810

John Jacob Anderson and Sons, John and Edward, Joshua Johnson

John Jacob Anderson and Sons, John and Edward 1812 – 1815

By continuing to browse Obelisk you agree to our Cookie Policy