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
David Dows (1814–1890). “...Successful New York grain merchant; member of the Chamber of Commerce, 1875–90; employed by his brother in the grain trade; amassed a fortune in a comparatively few years; one of the organizers of the New York Corn Exchange; saved the government an enormous amount of money by his purchase of supplies for the Army during the Civil War; portrait presented by his family” [New-York Historical Society].
Catalogue of Portraits in the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York. New York: New York Chamber of Commerce, 1924.
- Portrait pose:
- Posthumous: