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Seated Girl with Strawberries ranks among his very best likenesses of a child, notable for the inherent beauty of the sitter, her distinctively pleasant expression, the vibrancy of the pink color of her dress and red shoes. The seated figure is unique for Johnson as he usually depicted a standing child in his signature flowering garden. Here, the girl holds a strawberry in a half-raised right arm, a pose Johnson used in several other portraits done in the same period.
ProvenanceDecended in the family to Susanna (Wilcox) Dietrich (1873-1962); “Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver and Prints,” Christies, New York, January 17-18, 2019, lot 1219;
David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT; Private collection, 2019; David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT.
Artist
Joshua Johnson
(American, ca. 1763 - ca. 1824)
Seated Girl With Strawberries
Date1803-1805
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsSight: 19 5/8 × 15 5/8 in. (49.8 × 39.7 cm)
Object numberN0015.2023
Credit LineCollection of the Fenimore Art Museum. Gift of the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust.
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextJoshua Johnson is considered America’s first professional African American portrait painter. He was first identified by name in 1939 by the scholar J. Hall Pleasants, yet he remains an enigmatic figure. Family histories and a listing as a “free coloured person” in the 1816-1817 Baltimore City Directory indicated that he was African American, but his background was unknown until the 1990s when newly discovered court records revealed his mixed-race heritage. In 1782, he was apprenticed to a blacksmith, but little is known of his life until 1796, when he is listed as a portrait painter in the Baltimore City Directory. Two years later, he placed his first advertisement, in which he noted that he was a “self-taught genius.” Seated Girl with Strawberries ranks among his very best likenesses of a child, notable for the inherent beauty of the sitter, her distinctively pleasant expression, the vibrancy of the pink color of her dress and red shoes. The seated figure is unique for Johnson as he usually depicted a standing child in his signature flowering garden. Here, the girl holds a strawberry in a half-raised right arm, a pose Johnson used in several other portraits done in the same period.
ProvenanceDecended in the family to Susanna (Wilcox) Dietrich (1873-1962); “Important American Furniture, Folk Art, Silver and Prints,” Christies, New York, January 17-18, 2019, lot 1219;
David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT; Private collection, 2019; David A. Schorsch and Eileen M. Smiles, Woodbury, CT.
On View
On view
