Catalogue Entry
Johnson, like other artists, painted himself when not engaged in other projects. In these portraits we see the chronological progression of his physiognomy, especially his facial hair. Sometimes we see the inner man, and at other times we see the man in his environment. The self-portrait he presented to the National Academy of Design when he was inducted in 1859 is the grandest; but the most flamboyant is his self-portrait of 1899, in which he is dressed in the costume he wore at the Twelfth Night celebration at the Century Association. —PH
MacGibeny, 2021: Hills identified this painting as a self-portrait based on its resemblance to Eastman Johnson Self-Portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. The Williams College Museum of Art previously had identified it as a portrait of alum and benefactor Frederick Ferris Thompson, in apparent confusion with a Johnson portrait of Thompson also owned by the museum.
Jonathan Eastman Johnson (1824–1906). American portrait and genre painter. Son of Philip Carrigan Johnson and Mary Kimball Chandler Johnson; brother of Reuben, Judith, Mary, Philip, Sarah, Harriet, and Eleanor. Married Elizabeth Williams Buckley (m. 1869); father of Ethel (1870–1931).
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