Johnson’s early art training included working in a Boston lithography shop, and hence he knew how to draw on the stone before paper was laid over it and printed. In The Hague, where numerous lithography shops were at his disposal, several of his portraits were executed as lithographs. —PH
MacGibeny, 2022: This cliché-verre print by Johnson appeared in an album of twelve titled Autograph Etchings by American Artists, Produced by a new application of Photographic Art, under the supervision of John W. Ehninger, Illustrated By Selections from American Poets, 1859, accompanied by a poem by Charles Sprague (1791–1875). P. C. Duchochois printed the images in the album. John Whetton Ehninger, portrayed posthumously three decades later by Johnson, had attended the Düsseldorf Academy in 1848, the year before Johnson did; both were elected National Academicians in 1860.
Johnson drew his image on glass, enabling it to be used like a photographic negative to produce the print. John Whetton Ehninger's cliche-verre process was described in a review of Autograph Etchings in The Publishers' Circular, London, December 1, 1859 (quoted here at length to give the sense in which it was presented as an innovation of particular importance to artists):
"We have before us a portfolio of very clever etchings by American artists, published by Messrs. Townshend and Co., of New York, which have been produced by a new application of the photographic art; under the supervision of Mr. J. W. Ehninger…A glass plate is prepared with collodion in the usual way, exposed to the light, developed, and cleared by hyposulphite of soda or cyanide. The plate now presents a beautiful even surface of a grey colour; on this the artist etches his subject with a proper needle. The plate must then be covered with a transparent varnish, and if no delicacy of half-tone is required, it is now ready for the photographic printer. The rest of the process, in which the chief merit consists, we will give in Mr. Ehninger's own words: 'In skies and distant background, however, it will be found that the aerial perspective is deficient in delicacy, from the fact that inasmuch as the light shines with equal intensity through all the abraded portions of the glass, the background lines are as dark as those in the foreground. Simple as it may seem, now that I have discovered a remedy for this difficulty, to overcome it cost me an infinite labour and many fruitless experiments. The reverse side of the etched plate is covered with a thin coat of a yellow colour, which is composed of asphaltum dissolved in spirits of turpentine. When this is dry, I trace, with a fine point, upon it the outline of the portions of the picture which require to be subdued in colour. From the portions of the plate not included in this outline I remove the varnish with alcohol. Thus the light, being diminished in intensity by the yellow varnish, through which it is transmitted, discolours the paper opposite such portions in a less degree, in proportion to the thickness of the coat of varnish, whereas the rest of the etching receives its full force and is darkened accordingly."
Johnson had painted this subject in 1857 in Minnesota Territory [Indian Mother]. The compositions are similar except that this print is reversed, the full wigwam is shown in the print rather than cropped, and the woman looks at the viewer rather than averting her gaze as in the painting. Johnson also had painted the full wigwam in 1857 [Ojibwe Wigwam at Grand Portage] and drawn the mother and child without the setting [Kay be sen day way We Win]. Although it is not known whether Johnson may have copied those works or perhaps used a now-lost drawing from the same period that is closer to the print, he chose those elements that would be maximized by the linear and tonal capabilities of Ehninger's process.
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