This portrait was most likely created in the early 1800s by Joshua Johnson. During this period, portraiture was a predominant form of two-dimensional art in 19th century Neoclassicism. It is evident that Joshua Johnson is the artist for this particular work due to the similarity in pose and subtle shading. The painting in question also depicts two children; in other works created by Johnson there are often multiple people included in these portraits. Many other portrait artists, such as William Simpson and Julien Hudson, tended to only complete singular figure portraits. In fact because Joshua Johnson was working in the early 1800s and these two portraiture artists worked more often during the 1820s, Johnson’s style set a precedent that was …show more content…
Many African American artists were creating work that depicted white people during this time due to most of their patronage coming from white/Euro Americans. Joshua Johnson in particular, was self taught and developed his specific neoclassical style by observation. His career as a limner, or a traveling portrait painter, was successful as during this time Euro Americans appreciated what they considered folk art, art done by untrained artists, due to the association of classically trained fine art with British aristocracy. Johnson’s awkwardly posed portraits have simple, yet successful compositions and accurately capture honest depictions of his …show more content…
First, it shows that there was fine art being created by black artists, which in the early 19th century it was much more common for African Americans who were previously enslaved to make craftwork that produced easily sellable objects, such as furniture, baskets, textiles, and other similar items. This was predominant because there were many laws and societal constructs in place that restricted the freedom of black people, especially when it came to what work they did. Steven Loring Jones mentioned in his article A Keen Sense of the Artistic African American Material Culture in 19th Century Philadelphia how even in that state, with it’s large Quaker population, that condemned slavery, there was still substantial racial separation and prejudice being enforced (page 5). It also shows that Joshua Jones has an identifiable style with his portraits, with his minimal modeling of features, consistently depicting people with rigid, dignified poses, and his subtle use of oil glazes to depict translucent materials such as clothing. In addition, this painting also serves to confront the incorrect idea that black people were not emotionally, intelligently, or skillfully competent. These racist ideas were brought about by the representation of African Americans as harmful minstrel character troupes, such as Jim Crow. Every