It is not known why Johnson copied portraits by Gilbert Stuart and John Trumbull, the early American masters whose style of painting (layers of paint and glazing) were so different from his own. Also unknown are the circumstances relevant to his painting a copy of a portrait of William Backhouse Astor that had been completed by his colleague George Augustus Baker, Jr., after a photograph by Mathew Brady. —PH
Hills, 2021: George A. Baker, Jr. (1821–1880) was trained by his father to paint miniature portraits on ivory. After a two-year trip to Europe he returned to New York in 1846 and became a well known New York painter of life-size portraits. Elected to the National Academy of Design in 1851, he was, like Johnson, active in NA affairs.
MacGibeny, 2021: According to the New York Public Library wall label viewed by Hills, this painting is a copy of the portrait of Astor by George A. Baker, Jr. The Frick Art Reference Library Photoarchive files, Eastman Johnson, "William Backhouse Astor," supply files, accessed March 17, 2021, suggest Baker's source: a photograph of Astor by Mathew Brady, reproduced in Cirker and Cirker, Dictionary of American Portraits, New York, 1967, p. 23.
William Backhouse Astor (1792–1875). Merchant and capitalist, known to be the richest man in the United States at the time of his death due to inherited wealth, fur trade, and real estate. Son of John Jacob (1st) and Sarah (Todd) Astor. Married Margaret Rebecca (m. 1818). Father of John Jacob, William, Emily, Alida, and Laura.
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
- Portrait pose: