Catalogue Entry
In addition to his scenes of everyday life and portraits of people, Johnson created images of historical events and figures from works of literature, drama, and music. For example, “Carry Me, and I’ll Drum You Through” was inspired by an incident from the Battle of Antietam, 1862, and Membership Vote at the Union League Club, May 11, 1876, recorded a contentious meeting in which he participated much later. His Marguerite, Cosette, and Minnehaha are personifications of fictional heroines from novels and poetry. His Boy Lincoln represents both the future United States president and the archetypical American youth who, with determination and hard work, could succeed. Johnson rendered several of these imaginative images as both paintings and drawings. These literary and historical works evince both his personal interest in those subjects and his awareness of their popularity with the broad public. —AM
MacGibeny, 2021: This painting closely resembles the other dated version by Johnson that was the source for the popular chromolithograph Whittier's Barefooted Boy made by Louis Prang & Co. John Greenleaf Whitter's poem "The Barefoot Boy" was illustrated with a similar image of a boy outdoors by another artist when first published in The Little Pilgrim, Philadelphia, 1855; see the linked reproduction.
- Subject matter:
See all Prints after Works by Johnson.