Portrait of Edward Aisquith

Gallery 108, American Art, first floor (Nyheim Gallery)

Main Building

Portrait of Edward Aisquith

1810

Joshua Johnson (American, born c. 1763, active 1796-1824)

The earliest documented professional African American artist, Joshua Johnson (whose last name sometimes appears as Johnston) worked as a portrait painter in Baltimore, where he produced more than eighty known works between 1795 and 1825. He may have begun life as a slave, but Johnson was certainly a free man by 1795, when he advertised himself as a self-taught "genius" in the Baltimore Intelligencer. This is the first work by the artist to enter the Museum's collection.

Gallery 108, American Art, first floor (Nyheim Gallery)

Object Details

Title:

Portrait of Edward Aisquith

Date:

1810

Artist:

Joshua Johnson (American, born c. 1763, active 1796-1824)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

22 1/2 × 18 3/8 inches (57.2 × 46.7 cm) Frame: 25 3/4 × 21 1/2 × 2 inches (65.4 × 54.6 × 5.1 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

125th Anniversary Acquisition. Purchased with funds contributed by Dr. Benjamin F. Hammond, the Edith H. Bell Fund, and with funds contributed in honor of the 125th Anniversary of the Museum and in celebration of African American art, 2001

Accession Number:

2001-11-1

Geography:

Made in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, North and Central America

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Gallery 108, American Art, first floor (Nyheim Gallery)

Main Building

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