Driven to Create Beauty

February is Black History Month so I thought I would research African-American artists. Most artists lament over the difficulty in making a living as an artist. Imagine being a person of color trying to make a living painting wealthy plantation owners in Maryland and Virginia in the early 1800s. Joshua Johnson l796-1824 was the first African-American professional portraitist. Little is known of his life. He was born a slave and freed at some point. He was trained as a blacksmith, was married and had two children. He was relative undiscovered until 1939.


When I look at his work, I try to think of what it would have been like back then to sit and paint previous slaveholders that most likely were responsible for unbelievable suffering of your family and ancestors. The subjects of his paintings seem to have cold and emotionless faces. He undoubtably may have seen European portraits which may have been responsible for the composition of his work... the stiffness and formal nature. Despite the attempted formality of his subjects, he brings forth charming folk art characteristics to his paintings.

Artists are sometimes driven to create when society wants to assign class roles for them. He was a pioneer in American Painting.

by Renee Bangerter