Existing comment:
Joshua Johnson
Grace Allison McCurdy (Mrs. Hugh McCurdy) and her Daughters, Mary Jane and Letitia Grace, c. 1804
One of the earliest known African American artists, Johnson -- a free black living and working in Baltimore -- painted portraits of many middle- and upper-middle class residents of the city. Grace Allison, who married the successful merchant Huge McCurdy in 1794, is shown here with her children Mary Jane and Letitia Grace. The self-taught artist's distinctive composition links his crisply drawn figures through tender gesture, repeated passages of vibrant red, and the gentle curve of the dark settee behind them. |