Born to a Black enslaved mother and a white father in north Baltimore County, Joshua Johnson (1763- ca1824) is purchased and then in 1782 is manumitted by his father at age 19. He teaches himself to paint.
He begins his career in Baltimore in 1798, calling himself a “self-taught genius” in a Baltimore Intelligencer advertisement. Many of his portraits of Baltimore families, painted in the distinctive style of a self taught folk artist, have survived as evidence that Johnson is the first professional Black portrait painter. His first commission in 1800 is to paint the family of the Justice of the Peace who signs his freedom papers.
Johnson’s distinctive folk portraits of many elite families are discovered and identified in 1939. The records of his life are scarce but he appears to have married twice with four children and moves to Frederick County and then Anne Arundel County after decades in Baltimore.
Surviving Joshua Johnson portraits are scattered in several collections but the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore has the largest number.
