Joshua Johnson is one of the United States’ earliest Black portraitists. Little of the artist’s life is documented, but manumission papers—documents relating to his liberation from slavery—reveal that he was born into slavery to a white father and a Black enslaved mother in Maryland. At age seventeen, he was sold to his father, most likely by the man who had enslaved his mother. Johnson was promised his freedom upon his twenty-first birthday or after the completion of a blacksmith apprenticeship, whichever came first.

From 1794 to 1825 Johnson advertised himself as one of Baltimore’s most active and reputable artists: “As a self-taught genius, deriving from nature and industry his knowledge of the Art; and having experienced many insuperable obstacles in the pursuit of his studies, it is highly gratifying to him to make assurances of his ability to execute all commands with an effect, and in a style, which must give satisfaction.” During Johnson’s long and profitable career, he painted more than eighty portraits of Baltimore’s wealthy merchants and importers.