Lost and Found: The Possibly True Story of America's First Black Artist

The Object

In 1798, a portrait artist named Joshua Johnson advertises himself as a “self-taught genius.” A few decades later, he will nearly be forgotten. It’s a mystery only now being revealed: the unlikely story of the man sometimes called America’s first Black professional artist. A story of slavery and freedom, racism and redemption, nearly lost to history. You can see Johnson's "Portrait of Richard John Cock," c. 1817, here in the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/106096/portrait-of-richard-john-cock-joshua-johnson