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
Hills opinion letter, 2005: "The figure stands by a window in a darkened interior and has a pensive expression. Details of the setting emerge from dark sienna shadows, such as the ladder at the right."
MacGibeny, 2021: The title Pestal, used in a Washington Art Association exhibition in 1859, was linked to this painting (called A Pensive Moment at the time when it was examined by Hills) based on the description printed on the cover of the sheet music for the song Pestal, published 1847: "The illfated Individual who bore the above name [PESTAL] having rendered himself obnoxious to the Russian Government was imprisoned and condemned to Death. a [sic] few hours before his execution he composed and scratched upon the wall of his Dungeon the following exquisite Air. The touching melancholy of which added to the circumstances under which it was written have suggested the words which will be found within" —W. H. B. [songwriter W. H. Bellamy]. See the characters on the wall near the subject's right shoulder.
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