Catalogue Entry
This theme presents the larger studies Johnson did for finished drawings and paintings; some of the figures are done in graphite pencil, while others are done in charcoal. Sheldon Keck, a conservator who examined many Johnson drawings and paintings, wrote the following in “A Use of Infra-Red Photography in the Study of Technique,” Technical Studies in the Field of the Fine Arts, 1941:
Johnson's procedure, as thus reconstructed, seems to have been to prepare carefully in advance of his painting a drawing of the whole or of important parts. In this he determined as well the modelling and chiaroscuro to be used in his painting. He next traced the drawing and transferred the outline to the picture priming. He diligently followed this outline in his application of paint. The drawing of the "Girl with Glass" of which a painted version appears in "The New Bonnet" illustrates this conclusion. The measurements of the drawn and painted figures coincide and the infra-red photograph reveals the guide lines in the painting.
—PH
MacGibeny, 2022: This subject previously had been identified as Captain Moore. According to correspondence in the Nantucket Historical Association object file for their Johnson painting Portrait of Captain Charles Myrick (Study for Embers), his name actually is Captain William C. Mooers. This sketch is a study for Johnson's painting Old Whalers of Nantucket (also known as The Nantucket School of Philosophy; Walters Art Museum), in which Mooers is the central figure.
Hills opinion letter: Study of a Man (painting of which this drawing is the verso), March 5, 1994 view »
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