The earliest recorded portrait drawing of a known individual by Johnson is Henry Sewell, done in Augusta, Maine, and dated November 26, 1844. Already in 1844, when Johnson was twenty, this work shows the artist's superb use of charcoal (black chalk) to highlight the lights and shadow that capture the three-dimensionality of his sitter. This talent may have been initiated from the time he worked in a lithography shop in Boston, and also the availability of mezzotints.
The Sewell portrait also shows Johnson’s understanding of anatomy in the sitter’s facial structure. During this period, 1844–1949, Johnson almost always used charcoal (black chalk) for his portraits. Some are half-length portraits including hands, but the majority are heads (and necks) alone. He took about three days to complete a charcoal portrait. The style of the time was to present portraits in oval frames.
See Technical Information on Johnson's Practices for a discussion of charcoal, black chalk, crayon, and pastel. —PH
MacGibeny, 2022: Although Mrs. Johnson's letter, quoted below, misstates Richard Henry Wilde's name and other details including the date when this drawing would have been done, her reference to the portrait is corroborated by the engraving by John Sartain. See the linked image of the engraving for the drawing's appearance.
Elizabeth Johnson letter to the Smithsonian Institute, December 1, 1906: "Please excuse this long letter but I am most happy that we are to have a National Gallery and I think a National portrait [sic] Gallery like the English for our heroes and literary and distinguished men would be a great honor and satisfaction to the country. These portraits are on exhibition and sale with all Mr. Eastman Johnson’s other works of his studio. He made 34 portraits in 1843 [sic] - judges McLean and Story of the Supreme Court, foreign ministers - Maud [sic], Mrs. Hamilton Fish, a poet Mr. Wm. Henry Wilde of New Orleans - Secretary of the Navy Dobbins and in 1847 went to Boston on invitation of Mr. Longfellow to take portraits of his wife and children, his friends Nathaniel Hawthorne, Chas. Sumner, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Pres. Felton of Harvard and others.”
Richard Henry Wilde (1789–1847). U.S. Representative and lawyer from Georgia. Poet and biographer.
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