Catalogue Entry
When Johnson returned to the United States, he not only painted genre paintings but he also continued to paint portraits, which gave him a steady income. After 1880 Johnson turned to portraiture almost exclusively. During the 1880s and 1890s he painted businessmen, lawyers, university presidents, and three U.S. presidents from life. At times he also painted their wives and children.
He was also commissioned to paint posthumous portraits, often from photographs. These portraits by and large do not have the sparkle and active brushwork of those done from life. It seems that the demand for portraits of business and civic leaders (and members of exclusive men’s clubs) was so high that portrait painters would often make copies of each other’s paintings to satisfy the market for such images. In many instances, it has been difficult to render opinions for such paintings. —PH
MacGibeny, 2021: See the linked Century Association photograph of Herbert B. Turner for his likeness.
Herbert B. Turner (1835–1903). “Highly esteemed member of the bar of New York, an authority on railroad law and organization, and prominent in practice before the higher federal courts. He was connected with a number of the charitable organizations of the city and was an active member of the Protestant Episcopal Church. His home was in Englewood, where he was one of the founders of St. Paul’s Church and a leader in the religious and social life of the town, in the development of which he was keenly interested” [Century Association Yearbook, 1904].
- Portrait pose: