Catalogue Entry
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
William Henry Vanderbilt (1821–1885). Financier. “He extended the Vanderbilt system of railroads, and made large gifts to the College of Physicians and Surgeons (New York), the Metropolitan Museum, etc.” [Century Cyclopedia of Names, 1911]. Eldest of four sons of Cornelius and Sophia (Johnson) Vanderbilt. “He had continuing interest in the [Vanderbilt] University which his father had founded, providing funds for three new buildings for the campus in 1880” [Tennessee Portrait Project website].
White, Terry James. The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography. Ann Arbor, MI: University Microfilms, 1967–.
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