In his current role, he oversees news coverage of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and is a host of Catholic Review Radio. He previously served as a writer, senior correspondent, assistant managing editor and digital editor of the Catholic Review and the Archdiocese of Baltimore. George Matysek, a member of the Catholic Review staff since 1997, has served as managing editor since September 2021. “He provided a model for other African Americans that they, too, could be practicing artists capable of intellectual and creative achievement,” Fulco said.įor more information about the free Johnson art exhibition, visit or call 30. Johnson is an important figure in early federal and late colonial American portraiture art, Fulco said, whose story shows the increasing contributions of African Americans to American society in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. “In my view and in the view of other scholars, the painting is by Joshua Johnson,” said Fulco, noting that the portrait contains Johnson’s “signature style,” including thinly applied paint and the use of graphite to heighten areas of the composition. In the past, Jeremiah Paul Jr., a contemporary of Johnson, had been erroneously credited as the painter of the Carroll portrait. Peter’s Pro-Cathedral, the church that served as the cathedral prior to Archbishop Carroll’s commissioning of the Baltimore Basilica.įulco said some researchers believe Johnson may have been Catholic, although there is no confirming documentation of the artist’s faith.Īrchbishop Carroll, who himself had owned enslaved persons, represented the most prominent leader Johnson painted over the course of his career. (Courtesy Washington County Museum of Fine Artsįulco said Johnson likely came into contact with Archbishop Carroll because Johnson’s wife was Catholic and their five children were baptized at St. Joshua Johnson painted this portrait of Benjamin Franklin Yoe and son Benjamin Franklin Yoe, Jr. Many of his portraits are held by the Maryland Center for History and Culture in Baltimore, which loaned them for display at the current Johnson exhibition. He purchased advertising in newspapers, declaring himself a “self-taught genius, deriving from nature and industry his knowledge of the Art.” He made a name for himself painting several prominent Marylanders, including politicians, doctors, merchants and sea captains. His father purchased Johnson when he was 19 and released him from slavery several years later.Īs a young man, Johnson worked as a blacksmith’s apprentice and taught himself portraiture art. Johnson was born into slavery in rural Baltimore County to a white man named George Johnson and a Black slave woman owned by William Wheeler Sr. “The fact that he would approach this African-American portraitist in the city at that time in history is really remarkable,” Fulco said, “because Carroll was painted by the likes of Gilbert Stuart.” The painting was completed sometime between 18, not long before Archbishop Carroll’s death. 23 to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown as part of an exhibition of Johnson’s art called “Joshua Johnson: Portraitist of Early American Baltimore.”ĭaniel Fulco, the museum’s curator, said Archbishop Carroll’s selection of Johnson to paint his portrait speaks volumes about the esteem in which the artist was held. Johnson’s image of Archbishop Carroll is now on loan through Jan. What most people don’t know is that Joshua Johnson, the artist who painted the portrait, was a biracial former slave and self-taught artist regarded as the first professional African-American artist in the newly-formed nation. (Courtesy Maryland Center for History and Culture)Īn oil painting of Baltimore Archbishop John Carroll, the first Catholic bishop in the United States, has long been one of the most prized works of art owned by the Archdiocese of Baltimore.įor generations, the image of a serene-looking archbishop dressed in clerical garb and a tasseled stole has peered at visitors from a wall in the archbishop’s residence attached to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. Johnson became a well-respected portraiture artist. Part of Joshua Johnson’s manumission papers from 1782 show his release from slavery.
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