Portrait of Richard John Cock

Joshua Johnson · c. 1817

Joshua Johnson was the earliest documented professional Black portrait painter in the United States, who forged a successful career primarily in Baltimore, Maryland. A freedman, Johnson attracted prominent clients through a newspaper advertisement referring to himself as a “self-taught genius” inspired by nature. His patrons included politicians, doctors, clergymen, and merchants. Johnson made several paintings memorializing children after their deaths, commissioned by their grieving families. This full-length portrait depicts Richard John Cock, who died at age 9 in 1817. Here, Richard stands in a lush garden, surrounded by sweet-scented roses and pointing to a moth. Because of the insect’s life cycle, this symbol is aligned with the hope for rebirth, regeneration, transformation, and change.