The difference between our portrait and the one at Claydon House lies in the women’s jewellery and their faces.[1] In ours, Johnson’s softly blended sfumato brush-work creates an almost translucent surface to her skin, giving the sitter’s face a vivid realism. The connection, if any, between the two women remains unknown, lost over time. Alternatively, the visual similarities may reveal Johnson’s artistic practise – he may possibly have had a ‘stock’ set of painted costumes for his sitters to choose from for their idealised representation. Certainly, many of Johnson’s portraits from this period present his sitters in similar black and white costumes. Aileen Ribeiro has noted this combination brings to mind the contemporary romantic conceit of ‘Night and Day’, or ‘Melancholy and Joy’.

Johnson was born in London, the son of Flemish émigrés whose family originated from Cologne. His parents were part of the great influx of Protestants from the Netherlands who fled religious persecution following the Spanish conquest of Flanders and the fall of Antwerp. It has been speculated that he may have trained in the Netherlands with Michiel Jansz. van Miereveld.[2] Indeed, our portrait has a smooth and precise finish that is reminiscent of that artist. It may well be that Johnson also studied in London under Marcus Gheeraerts. Not only do his first signed and dated works such as this use a form of inscription similar to that of Gheeraerts, but stylistically they continue the Jacobean traditions encapsulated in that artist’s oeuvre. Johnson’s art was suited to the relative intimacy of the bust-length portrait where, with a certain detachment, he captured the reticence of the English landed gentry and minor aristocracy.[3]

[1] Our unknown lady wears a more complex cruciform diamond pendant, and a simpler pearl-drop earring.

[2] K. Hearn, ‘The English Career of Cornelius Johnson’, Dutch and Flemish Artists in Britain 1550 - 1700, Leiden, 2003, ed. E. Domela et al., pp.113-128.

[3] His success was such that in December 1632 Johnson was appointed as ‘his Majesty’s servant in ye quality of Picture Drawer’. However, the arrival of Van Dyck evidently had a major impact on his patronage. Although Johnson was still among the King’s ‘servants in ordinary of the chamber’ in 1641, as described by Vertue, he ‘Stayd in England till the Troublesom civil war… being terrifyd with those apprehensions & the constant persuasions of his wife went to Holland’. Thus he and his family left for Holland in October 1643, where he continued to paint into his final years, dying in Utrecht in 1661.