Portrait of a Gentleman
Artist
Joshua Johnson
(American, about 1763 - 1830)
Dateca. 1805
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 32 1/4 × 28 inches (81.92 × 71.12 cm)
Framed: 38 1/4 × 33 7/8 × 3 inches (97.16 × 86.04 × 7.62 cm)
Framed: 38 1/4 × 33 7/8 × 3 inches (97.16 × 86.04 × 7.62 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: The Ever Glades Fund
Object number2024.48
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 211
Collections
DescriptionThis vertically oriented portrait depicts a young man. His body is turned in a three-quarters view as he sits posed in a brownish-red chair with a curved back and looks out directly at the viewer. His hair is light brown, short, and thin. Short bangs hang over his forehead. His eyes are gentle, and he has a kind and approachable smile. He wears a heavy black jacket over a high-collared blouse tied with a sheer, gauzy bow. He holds a white envelope with a red wax seal in his proper right hand. His proper left hand rests on a table at his side that is draped with a green cloth. A book with a brown cover and green-edged pages sits on the side table, as well. The sitter is posed before a dark, non-descript background.Exhibition HistoryMaryland Historical Society, Baltimore, MD;
The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Ceter, Colonial Williamsburg, VA;
The Whitney Museum of American Art, Midtown, New York and Stamford, CT, 1987-88;
Joshua Johnson: Freeman and Early American Portrait Painter
The artist;
To a private collection in Baltimore by 1853;
With Roger Haase (b.1944) and Michael Birdsall (b. 1946), Art and Anitques, St. Paul, MN, by 1987;
To a private collection, 1987-2022;
With Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, NY, 2022-2024;
Purchased by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of art through the Ever Glades Fund, Kansas City, MO, 2024.
Carolyn J. Weekley and Stiles Tuttle Colwill, Joshua Johnson: Freeman and Early American Portrait Painter, exhib. cat. (Baltimore: Maryland Historical Society, 1987), 130.
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