Catalogue Entry
Johnson, like other artists, painted himself when not engaged in other projects. In these portraits we see the chronological progression of his physiognomy, especially his facial hair. Sometimes we see the inner man, and at other times we see the man in his environment. The self-portrait he presented to the National Academy of Design when he was inducted in 1859 is the grandest; but the most flamboyant is his self-portrait of 1899, in which he is dressed in the costume he wore at the Twelfth Night celebration at the Century Association. —PH
American Art Association sale catalogue, 1932: "Vigorous head-and-shoulders portrait of the artist at half-left, wearing a dark brown coat; a distinguished head with flowing gray hair, long gray mustache and imperial."
Jonathan Eastman Johnson (1824–1906). American portrait and genre painter. Son of Philip Carrigan Johnson and Mary Kimball Chandler Johnson; brother of Reuben, Judith, Mary, Philip, Sarah, Harriet, and Eleanor. Married Elizabeth Williams Buckley (m. 1869); father of Ethel (1870–1931).
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