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Joshua Johnson:
Places
Portraitist of Early American Baltimore
ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT
written by SARAH J. HALL DIRECTOR OF THE WASHINGTON COUNTY MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS Opening April 17,“Joshua Johnson: Portraitist of Early American Baltimore” brings together more than 20 works of this important and enigmatic artist at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts. Johnson (c. 1763–1830), often described as the first professional Black portraitist in America, is a fascinating figure, and this show, the first museum exhibition devoted to him since 1988, brings new research and fresh thinking to his life and work.
Joshua Johnson (American, ca. 1763–1824), The James McCormick Family, 1804–1805, oil on canvas, Maryland Center for History and Culture, Baltimore, gift of Dr. Thomas C. McCormick. Photography by Maryland Center for History and Culture
Putting together an exhibition is one of the most gratifying aspects of museum work, but it’s a marathon. The timeline for creating a loan exhibition, from thesis to object list, through loan negotiations to installation, can happen in as little time as 18 months, but more often, museums are working on them for two to five years (Most museums require about a year’s notice to approve a painting for loan.) The exhibition is built around two portraits in our collection, both dating to 1809 —“Portrait of Susanna Amos Yoe and Daughter Mary Elizabeth Yoe,”and“Portrait of Benjamin Franklin Yoe and Son Benjamin Franklin Yoe Jr.,”donated to the museum in 1994 by F. Sydney Cushwa, the great-grandson of Mary Elizabeth Yoe. The portraits, charming pieces of family history, also illuminate the commercial aspects of Johnson’s business. He specialized in portraits of families and children, and in the days before photography, it was not unusual for multiple portraits to be commissioned. In the case of the Yoes, a second version of each painting was made,
