When Johnson returned from Europe late in 1855 and moved in with his family in Washington, D.C., he began receiving portrait commissions. Like those done earlier, Johnson generally used charcoal (named in some records as black chalk) with touches of white and created a strong chiaroscuro for his sitters. Gradually he moved away from the strong chiaroscuro style he had been using, and his later portraits tend to be sketchier (as was the taste in art at the time) but no less professional. He used pastel to bring in color in some of these portraits. —PH
MacGibeny, 2022: The "Capt. Baxter" of the inscription has been identified as William Baxter (b. 1805), a Nantucket whaling captain, based on comparison of this drawing to images of William Baxter from the year before and the year after this drawing was done. See the linked images of the portrait drawing by James Walter Folger, 1875, and the portrait photograph, 1877.
William Baxter (b. 1805). Captain of the whaling ship Martha, 1835–1841.
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