Eastman Johnson

Eastman Johnson painted scenes from daily life and portraits of both everyday people and prominent Americans, including Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He studied in Boston, Germany, and The Hague, where the influence of 17th-century Dutch masters shaped his later work, earning him the nickname “The American Rembrandt.” Born in Maine, he co-founded the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, where his name appears at the institution’s entrance. Johnson began his artistic career apprenticed to a Boston lithographer and continued to be active in Washington, D.C., Boston, and New York.