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: According to an article titled “A Victorian Gentleman’s Treasury” in an unknown publication (likely published by the University of Vermont), "Former Museum Director George Perkins felt the painting was too large to hang in the Cannon Room [which housed Cannon's collection of bric-a-brac] so he cut down the canvas and reframed the picture." It actually was folded (not cut down) so that only the head showed. The painting subsequently was restored in 1977.
Henry LeGrand Cannon (1857–1895). Amateur artist and collector of ethnographic objects, especially from East India and Java; member of Union League Club and Knickerbocker Club. Son of Le Grand Bouton Cannon (also portrayed by Johnson) and Mary B. De Forest.
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