Joshua Johnson was the first known African American painter to gain professional recognition in the United States. Listed in the 1816 Baltimore city directory as a “free householder of Colour,” he had been freed by his enslaver (and father) around 1782 after apprenticing as a blacksmith. Described as “self-taught” in a newspaper advertisement, Johnson attracted local patrons for his portraits from the city’s artisan and middle-class families.
Elizabeth Beatty is fashionably dressed, wearing a circlet of glass beads that accentuates her brown hair and gray eyes. The child’s clothes are equally elegant; she sports a high-waisted, white-muslin gown and holds a brightly colored strawberry, a delicacy often featured in Johnson’s portraits.
百度翻译：http://fanyi.baidu.com
