The women in these portraits have not yet been identified by name. However, the drawings are known or believed to have been done in the United States, before Johnson went to Europe to learn to paint in late 1849, based on evidence including their inscriptions and the appearance of the sitters and style of the drawings when images are available. Further research may enable the sitters to be identified. —AM
MacGibeny, 2022: The inscription "79 ys 23 May 1844 LG 70 YS 19th February 1844" may refer to the ages of two people. Perhaps the subject of this drawing was 79 years old on May 23, 1844, and the man in the companion drawing, Old Man (whose initials may have been "LG") was 70 years old on February 19, 1844.
Baur 1940, p. 77: "There is a rough sketch of a woman's torso on the back. Evidently a pair with the Brooklyn Museum's Head of a Man [Old Man] (no. 358). It is about the same size and both are matted uniformly in arch-topped mats."