By Grace Day
Happy Thanksgiving week! For our Artist Spotlight this week we want to feature an artist whose works are known world-wide and was best known for his genre paintings depicting everyday common scenes. I think these kinds of works are perfect to highlight this time of year when people are gathering and enjoying one another’s company.
Eastman Johnson was an American painter born in Maine in 1824. His early career started in Washington D.C where he would make crayon portraits of famous individuals such as John Quincy Adams and Dolly Madison. He eventually moved to Germany and became a student of the Kunstakademie Dusseldorf – an academy of fine arts. This is where he established his style of painting, his careful portrayal of individuals and not stereotypes enhanced the realism of his paintings. His attention to light source also contributed to his paintings realism.
Johnson co-founded the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and was known as The American Rembrandt in his day. Johnson was hugely influential in the art world and continues to inspire today. Enjoy these works by Eastman Johnson and have a fantastic Thanksgiving week!
