Catalogue Entry
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
MacGibeny, 2022: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow commissioned Johnson to draw portraits of himself, his family, and his friends, including writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, after being impressed by Johnson's portraits of his parents, Stephen and Zilpah Longfellow. In his journal entry of January 16, 1846, he wrote, "Went to Portland where I found all pretty well. A young artist of Maine, Mr. Johnson, has taken my father and mother, in every way is excellently made.” On October 22 he wrote, "Johnson’s sketch [sic] of [Longfellow's sisters] Anne and Mary are quite charming. I am delighted with them. He is to take for me all the club. The mutual Admiration Society which I shall hang in the Hall to show people what a fine set of heads they are." Johnson was only twenty-two years old when he made this drawing. These Longfellow commissions in the late 1840s helped to build Johnson's reputation as a young artist in America before he went to Europe in 1849 to learn to paint.
Longfellow's journal entry of February 15, 1848: “A visit from Hawthorne. He is growing bald; which brings out still more his high, ample forehead. Johnson's crayon does not do him justice…”
James Herbert Morse, a fellow member of the Century Association, recorded an amusing anecdote about Johnson’s interactions with Hawthorne in his diary entry of April 1, 1894, provided by Timothy J. DeWerff, executive director of the Century Association. “Saturday, until late, at the Century. Much talk…with Eastman Johnson and others. Johnson told of painting portraits, in 1848 or thereabouts, of Longfellow and the members of his family, and on Longfellow’s account, of his friends Sumner, Emerson, Felton, and Hawthorne. The last says Johnson, was always a silent sitter, saying very little. Shy, thought J. When the last sitting was over, Hawthorne brought his wife and little daughter Rose to look at the portrait, and while engaged in this, a sudden scream from Mrs. H. called their attention to the little girl, who, in fur-lined cloak and white woolen gloves, had been occupying herself in reworking the pictures along the walls. Some of them were fresh with paint or with crayon, and the little fingers had made sad havoc. Of course there was a scene. Mrs. Hawthorne profuse with apologies and tears, Mr. H. was also greatly troubled, but quite unable to say anything adequate. Johnson did his best to set their minds at ease and get them off. Half an hour later, Hawthorne reappeared to do what he could, but again was unable to say much. This was the last time Johnson ever saw him.”
Details of this story are inexact: Johnson drew Hawthorne in 1846, and Hawthorne scholar Richard Kopley notes that Hawthorne's daughter Rose wasn't born until 1851, suggesting the girl would have been his daughter Una, born 1844. By various accounts, Johnson was an entertaining storyteller.
Longfellow House catalogue record, July 9, 2014: "Oval portrait, facial view, facing slightly proper left. Black hair, eyes, neck scarf and coat; white collar. Black, brown, and white chalk shadowing and highlights."
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864). Noted author who most famously wrote The Scarlet Letter, as well as other novels and stories. Among the Boston intellectuals who established the community of Brook Farm. Appointed U.S. Consul to Liverpool England in 1853 by his friend, then President Franklin Pierce. Married Sophia Amelia Peabody (m. 1842); father of three children.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
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