Joshua Johnson, a free black who made his living as a portraitist in the racially tolerant environment of Federal-era Baltimore, had a talent for the tender delineation of family ties. Here, the small boys each extend an arm to their father and rest a pale hand on his sturdy form. Their father's hand, open in his lap, suggests a gentle accessibility. Johnson modeled his compositions on portraits by the Peale family of painters, for whom he initially may have worked as a servant in Philadelphia.
