Mr. Johnson has long been known by his picture of "The Old Kentucky Home,"—painted ten or fifteen years ago,—which gave him his place in New York as a genre painter equal to his subject, of an admirable humor, free from vulgarity, and comparable to the first European painters in the treatment of subjects of contemporary life. At the Great Exhibition of 1867, "The Old Kentucky Home" was second to none of its class. At home, it had often been called "black in color," because contrasted with American pictures which are painted on a high key and in light tones. Mr. Johnson should know that we were not the only ones who remarked the clear and sober color, and the complete absence of blackness in the picture, as it hung in the American department. But Mr. Johnson's sense of color, though far better and stronger than Knaus's sense of color, is not remarkable. His first claims as a painter are to be found in his tones and in his characters. As a physiognomist he is equal to Knaus, though he has not the same range of subject nor so much of the dramatic element.
Mr. Johnson's most recent work, now on the walls of the Academy of Design, representing the boyhood of Lincoln, is a most interesting work. He must be both a poor man and a poor American who can look at it without being greatly interested and touched. That long, lank, awkward figure, that serious face, to a nation of workers, to a nation whose most celebrated men have begun life in just such a homely and barren place as a log cabin or a New England farm-house, is characteristic of the boyhood of American public men. When the beginnings of life are so bare and poor, the development may be simple and strong, but it must be sad and homely. Our best men have had such a boyhood, and our best men were not more than Lincoln.
Mr. Johnson has shown his discrimination and his force in creating this figure and face of the boyhood of Lincoln. No doubt it will become a household picture dear to all men in this country.
Mr. Johnson is a native of Maine. He began the practice of his profession as a crayon draughtsman in Boston, then went abroad, and studied in Düsseldorf and at the Hague. He visited the West, and afterward settled in Washington. For the last ten years he has occupied a part of the University Building in New York. His studio is the finest in the city. It is enriched by pictures and sketches that indicate how he has used his days, and in what places. His whole being has been in his subjects, and his devotion to his profession and love of the characteristic have given him the high rank he now holds in art. As a painter of children he is equal to Frére, and far more vigorous and varied in his work. The French painter is, however, master of a more gracious style.
