- Identification and Creation
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- Object Number
- 2007.133
- People
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Joshua Johnson, American (probably Baltimore, MD c. 1763, active 1796-1824 probably Baltimore, MD)
- Title
- Portrait of a Girl
- Other Titles
- Former Title: Unidentified Lady
- Classification
- Paintings
- Work Type
- painting
- Date
- c. 1810-1815
- Culture
- American
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/316091
- Location
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Level 2, Room 2220, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, Rococo and Neoclassicism in the Eighteenth Century
View this object's location on our interactive map - Physical Descriptions
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- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 61 × 50.1 cm (24 × 19 3/4 in.)
framed: 73 × 62.2 × 3.8 cm (28 3/4 × 24 1/2 × 1 1/2 in.) - Inscriptions and Marks
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- label: A paper label on the wooden backing of the frame reads: "FROM/FITZGERALD'S/Emporium of Fine Arts/No. 5 (5?) N. GAY STREET/ BALTIMORE."
- Provenance
- Bertha Slattery Lieberman, Baltimore, MD; to her son William S. Lieberman, New York, NY; to Washburn Gallery, New York, NY, 1987-2005; Estate of William S. Lieberman, 2005-2007; his bequest to the Fogg Museum, 2007.
- Acquisition and Rights
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- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of William S. Lieberman
- Accession Year
- 2007
- Object Number
- 2007.133
- Division
- European and American Art
- Contact
- am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
- The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.
- Descriptions
-
- Description
- Joshua Johnson is the first documented African-American painter to work in the United States. He was a professional portrait painter who lived in Baltimore, Maryland. His birth and death dates, as well as place of birth and death, are unknown.
- Publication History
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Carolyn J. Weekley, Stiles Tuttle Colwill, Leroy Graham, and Mary Ellen Hayward, Joshua Johnson: Freeman and Early American Portrait Painter, exh. cat., Maryland Historical Society (Baltimore, MD, 1987), p. 150, cat. 63, ill.
Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr. and Melissa Renn, American Paintings at Harvard, Volume One: Paintings, Watercolors, and Pastels by Artists Born before 1826, Yale University Press (U.S.) and Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge and New Haven, 2014), p. 310, cat. 269, ill.
- Exhibition History
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Joshua Johnson: Freeman and Early American Portrait Painter, Maryland Historical Society, 09/26/1987 - 01/03/1988; Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, 01/17/1988 - 05/15/1988; Whitney Museum of American Art, 06/18/1988 - 08/25/1988; Whitney Museum of American Art, Stamford, CT Branch, 09/09/1988 - 11/09/1988
32Q: 2220 18th-19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 09/04/2021 - 01/01/2050
- Subjects and Contexts
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Google Art Project
Collection Highlights
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This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu