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
Jeannine Falino, curator and museum consultant, email communication, May 14, 2022: "With the introduction of his modestly-priced, yet handsomely-fitted Palace Car in 1865, George Pullman popularized train travel among the middle class. Pullman’s cars included plush upholstery, full-course meals, and even stained-glass, in contrast to the hard and uncomfortable accommodations then available. Pullman was worth 62 million dollars in 1893. For his army of workers, Pullman built a utopian company town in Illinois that bore his name, but his authority was never in question. When workers went on strike in 1894, he did not negotiate."
MacGibeny, 2022: This portrait is shown in the linked photograph of the Pullman mansion, where it hung with Johnson's portraits of the sitter's daughters Florence Pullman Lowden and Harriett Sanger Pullman Carolan (later Schermerhorn).
Also linked is a cabinet card featuring the custom Pullman Palace Car in which the McGibeny Family, billed as the "largest musical family known," traveled America in the 1880s. The back of the card describes some of the "thousand and one conveniences" of this "largest as well as the finest and best equipped palace car in the country," such as its running water, electric lamps, clever storage, and drawing room with piano.
Chicago Historical Society information sheet, undated: "Three-quarter length, standing. Left hand holding glasses, right hand behind back. In the right background is a green upholstered chair. He is facing slightly right. He is wearing a black coat, white shirt, and gray tie."
George Mortimer Pullman (1831–1897). “Builder of the first railroad sleeping car, the Pullman Palace Car and founder of the Pullman Car Company which revolutionized long distance rail travel” [Chicago Historical Society]. Married Harriet Sanger (m. 1866).
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
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