Background

David Johnston was born on March 25, 1799, in Philadelphia, where his father, William P. Johnston, served for some time as bookkeeper for David Claypoole, printer and publisher of Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser. His mother, Charlotte (Rowson) Johnston, was a sister-in-law of Susanna (Haswell) Rowson, actress and dramatist, and had come to America with her brother and his wife in 1793 as a member of Wignell's theatrical company. Her stage career was not especially brilliant and does not seem to have extended beyond her marriage to William Johnston, which occurred in 1797.

Education

Since as a school boy David displayed more interest in drawing than in his studies, his parents decided to place him under instruction. Though it was his ambition to be a painter, the family decreed that engraving offered more opportunity, and in 1815 he was apprenticed to Francis Kearny, then a successful engraver in Philadelphia.

Career

At the conclusion of his apprenticeship, finding little business in the illustration of books, David began to produce social caricatures which he published himself. These amusing publications attracted a great deal of favorable interest but also aroused the ire of the military and others who were ridiculed. Some of those caricatured even demanded that Johnston's pictures be removed from the booksellers' windows, a threat which rang down the curtain on the young artist's enterprise.

At this juncture the lure of the stage caused him to apply to William B. Wood, the actor-manager of the Walnut Street Theatre, and on March 10, 1821, he made his first appearance, as Henry in Speed the Plow. For several years he was attached to the Philadelphia company, first as "walking gentleman" and later in minor comic roles. In 1825 he went to Boston and joined the theatrical company in that city. While he was engaged as an actor, he continued occasionally to make caricatures and other prints, which he sold readily. Indeed, it was the desire to do more work with his etching needle that led him to Boston.

Johnston retired from the stage at the end of his first season there, and subsequently devoted himself to illustrating books and making drawings for comic prints. His popularity increased rapidly, and he was in demand for drawing on wood, etching plates, and drawing on stone for the Pendletons, who had established the first important lithographic house in the United States. He quickly mastered the technique of crayon drawing on the stone, and his lithographs are equal, if not superior, to any in America at that time. He also managed to find time to paint pictures, and exhibited in the Boston Athenum and in the National Academy of Design.

Beginning in 1830, for a few years he issued annually a series of plates, each containing a number of comic sketches, under the general title of Scraps, evidently suggested by Cruikshank's Scraps and Sketches. In 1835 he published eight humorous and satirical plates to illustrate Fanny Kemble's Journal, which was issued that year. Joseph C. Neal's Charcoal Sketches (1838), with illustrations by Johnston, may be said to have established the reputation he had already earned as a book illustrator. As late as 1863 Johnston issued a sheet of political satire on Jefferson Davis, The House that Jeff Built.

Although Johnston was fertile in invention and quite original, the influence of Cruikshank is observable in almost everything he did, but in many instances his drawing was superior to that of his model. His dependence upon Cruikshank is revealed in the attitude he adopted in his observations of the life around him rather than in any servile imitation of the English caricaturist's style, although, like Cruikshank, he was capable of producing most delicate lines with the etching needle. Johnston died at his home in Dorchester, Massachussets

Achievements

• David Johnston is best known as the first natively trained American to master all the various graphic arts processes of lithography, etching, metal plate engraving, and wood engraving. His most important work was a series of etched and lithographed character portraits of well-known American and British actors.

Works

More photos

• book

  • The Thousand and One Nights; Or, the Arabian Night's Entertainments

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Rudiments of Gesture, Comprising Illustrations of Common Faults in Attitude and Action: With Engravings and an Appendix Designed for Practical Exercise in Declamation

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • Charcoal sketches; or, Scenes in a metropolis

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • David Claypoole Johnston The Housewifes Burden - 18.05" x 27.05" Peel & Stick Removable Wall Decal

    (18.05" x 27.05" David Claypoole Johnston The Housewifes B...)

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• "Whether the letter-press be amusing, or not, the illustrations by Johnston are replete with humor and graphic skill. They who yawn in the perusal of our pages, can therefore turn for refreshment to the comicalities of the etcher, and excuse the dulness perpetrated by the pen, in laughing over the quaint characteristics embodied by our American Cruikshank. " - Joseph Neal

Connections

Johnston married Sarah Murphy of Boston in 1830, and they had eight children. One son, Thomas Murphy Johnston, inherited some of his father's talent.

Father:

William P. Johnston

Mother:

Charlotte (Rowson) Johnston

Spouse:

Sarah (Murphy) Johnston

Son:

Thomas Murphy Johnston

References

• History of the American theatre
• A note about David Claypoole Johnston with a check list of his book illustrations
• History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of Design in the United States