Catalogue Entry
When Johnson returned from Europe late in 1855 and moved in with his family in Washington, D.C., he began receiving portrait commissions. Like those done earlier, Johnson generally used charcoal (named in some records as black chalk) with touches of white and created a strong chiaroscuro for his sitters. Gradually he moved away from the strong chiaroscuro style he had been using, and his later portraits tend to be sketchier (as was the taste in art at the time) but no less professional. He used pastel to bring in color in some of these portraits. —PH
Bowdoin College Museum of Art website, accessed March 12, 2021: "During a studio visit by his friend Charles Packard, Johnson sketched his portrait while Packard examined one of his sketchbooks from The Hague; the walls are lined with canvases and a palette. With his deft use of dark tones in both the charcoal and brown paper, highlighted with white pastel, Johnson created a masterful, three-dimensional work. On presenting the drawing to Bowdoin, Packard recalled Johnson’s offer to take the portrait, perhaps because Packard was able 'to secure for him some valuable commissions for portraits. . . In a day or two the sketch was complete.'"
Dr. Charles Appleton Packard (1828–1909). Physician in Maine. Bowdoin College Class of 1848 [Obituary Record of the Graduates of Bowdoin College and the Medical School of Maine, pp. 479–80].
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