After Johnson arrived in Düsseldorf in late 1849 his earliest portrait drawings were graphite sketches of his instructors and artist friends. He continued to make drawings when he moved to The Hague in 1851. As he began to receive commissions, Johnson used charcoal and worked much in the style of the late 1840s drawings he had done in the United States. It is likely that he may have done many more sketches, but those that have been located, of his friends and teachers, were ones he selected to bring back to the U.S.; the commissioned portrait drawings of Europeans generally stayed in Europe. —PH
MacGibeny, 2022: German painter Otto Knille (1832–1898) studied at the Düsseldorf Academy where Johnson had traveled to learn to paint, 1849–1851. Johnson sketched several other students and teachers of the Academy as well, including Andreas Achenbach, Elias Büsken, Ludwig Knaus, Heinrich Mücke, and Worthington Whittredge.
Otto Knille (1832–1898). Well-known German painter of the Düsseldorf Academy and professor at the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. Studied in Düsseldorf, 1848 to 1852. Student of Emanuel Leutze.
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