The earliest recorded portrait drawing of a known individual by Johnson is Henry Sewell, done in Augusta, Maine, and dated November 26, 1844. Already in 1844, when Johnson was twenty, this work shows the artist's superb use of charcoal (black chalk) to highlight the lights and shadow that capture the three-dimensionality of his sitter. This talent may have been initiated from the time he worked in a lithography shop in Boston, and also the availability of mezzotints.
The Sewell portrait also shows Johnson’s understanding of anatomy in the sitter’s facial structure. During this period, 1844–1949, Johnson almost always used charcoal (black chalk) for his portraits. Some are half-length portraits including hands, but the majority are heads (and necks) alone. He took about three days to complete a charcoal portrait. The style of the time was to present portraits in oval frames.
See Technical Information on Johnson's Practices for a discussion of charcoal, black chalk, crayon, and pastel. —PH
de Young Museum website, accessed January 11, 2014: "Half length full face portrait of a formally dressed white haired gentleman, seated in an armchair, his hands folded around his knob headed walking stick."
General Henry Sewall (1752–1845). Soldier in the Revolutionary War, 1775–1783 [Lineage Book: National Society of the Daughters of American Revolution, vol. 13 (Washington: National Society of the Daughters of American Revolution, 1896), p. 226]. Sewall family were a well-known shipbuilding family in Bath, Maine [Note in file via American Paintings regarding sitter from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco docent Sara Conklin (n.d., c. early 1992)].
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