Catalogue Entry
Johnson continued drawing portraits in charcoal after he arrived in Europe. However, the currently located portrait drawings of children were all executed in The Hague, and those portraits returned to the United States. —PH
Hills, 2022: Perry Belmont was the grandson of Admiral Matthew Perry, who, under orders from President Fillmore, sailed into Tokyo Harbor on July 8, 1853, with the official purpose of opening up trade with Japan after centuries of Japan’s isolationism. The alternate title The Young Commodore and the sailor suit attire are thus an homage to his grandfather.
MacGibeny, 2022: The Mrs. Folsom mentioned in Mrs. Belmont’s diary entry, who had recommended Johnson to the Belmonts, was Margaret Cornelia Winthrop Folsom, wife of George Folsom, who was chargé d’affaires to the Netherlands, 1850–1853, during the time when Johnson lived in The Hague, 1851–1855. Johnson made drawings and lithographs of the Folsom family (parents Margaret and George, and their children Margaret Winthrop Folsom, Helen Stuyvesant Folsom, and George Winthrop Folsom) as well as the Belmont family (ambassador August Belmont, his wife Caroline Slidell Perry Belmont, and their son Perry Belmont), all circa 1853. This early patronage was an important boost to Johnson's budding career as a painter in Europe.
Baur 1940, p. 74: "August Belmont was American Minister at the Hague in 1853. On November 24 of that year Mrs. Belmont wrote in her diary: "I am having Perry's taken in his sailor clothes. The artist is an American (Mr. Johnson) who is recommended to us by Mrs. Folsom." The subject was 2 1/2 years old at the time."
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