The Westwood Children

The Westwood Children, (circa 1807), Joshua Johnson, Oil on canvas, Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chlysler Garbisch, Photograph 2002 Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art.

Joshua Johnson (Born 1763) is the most well-known African American artist of the 18th century. The son of a white father and slave mother, Joshua Johnson was born a slave but later freed. Unschooled, like most American artists of the time, he painted portraits, usually for the prominent families of his native Baltimore, Maryland.