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 the commissioned drawings 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. In his later professional years as a painter of oil few portraits of children are recorded. His art commanded high prices; perhaps families were then reluctant to include their children in sittings for portrait drawings. —PH
J. Hall Pleasants, Biographical Notes, 1949, provided by Maryland Center for History and Culture: "Portrait of a small boy, four-five years old, shown standing, two-thirds length, and turned one-quarter to the right. He has brown eyes, light brown hair parted on the left, rosy cheeks, ear, and lips, and rosy dimpled hands. He wears a dark grey-brown short-sleeved dress, worn off the shoulders and trimmed with white muslin at neck and arm. There is a sash of silk cord with tassels tied in a bow at the right side. He holds in both hands an open child's ABC book resting on his chest and abdomen. At his back, against which he appears to be leaning, is a light brown cloth draped over a chair. The background is a slate-grey, much lighter at the right. The background is mottled by what appears to be mildew."
George Shedden Riggs (1849–1856). Son of George Washington Riggs and Janet Madeleine Cecilia Shedden; brother of Elisha Francis Riggs, also portrayed by Johnson.
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