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Edouart, Auguste, artist.

[Silhouette Portraits of African American Band Leaders Francis “Frank” Johnson and Joseph Anderson.]

Saratoga Springs, New York, 1842–44. 2 full-length black paper silhouettes with graphite[?] or chalk[?] additions, mounted on lithographic background sheets, 11.25 x 7.75”. Portrait of Anderson signed “Aug. Edouart fecit. Saratoga Sept. 3 1844.” In early gilt wood frames.

Two rare silhouette portraits depicting groundbreaking African-American musician Francis “Frank” Johnson and his successor Joseph Anderson.

Widely regarded as America’s first major bandmaster, Francis B. Johnson (1792–1844) was an extraordinary African-American musician and composer who achieved popularity in his home city of Philadelphia as the leader of a dance orchestra that played at prominent events around the city, including balls and military functions, and at schools and privately hosted parties. Known for their dramatic style of performance incorporating extra-musical effects, the Johnson band’s repertoire encompassed Mozart, polkas, gallops, waltzes, cotillions, popular songs, country dances, reels, sacred music, jigs, marches and quadrilles. A multi-instrumentalist himself—but best known for his keyed bugle and violin playing—Johnson adjusted his groups according to each gig. Featuring some of the most accomplished black musicians of his time, Johnson’s all-black ensemble achieved immense success despite being plagued by racial prejudice throughout its duration in both the American North and South. While touring extensively throughout America and even parts of Canada between 1838–1844, his band was met with racist-fueled violence in Pittsburgh, for instance, and in St. Louis they were fined, summoned before a court of law, and ejected from the state—Missouri’s laws at this time forbidding the entry of free blacks.

Thought to have begun his career in a brass band following the War of 1812, Johnson wrote over 300 pieces of music and became the first black American composer to have his works published as sheet music when his Collection of New Cotillions was released in 1818. In the early ‘20s, Johnson’s band began working for the Philadelphia State Fencibles as well as the summer resort at Saratoga Springs (the latter, where these silhouettes were taken, proving to be an enduring engagement), among other resorts and Philadelphia military events. Johnson would gain greater national fame when he composed music to welcome General Lafayette to Philadelphia during the General’s 1824–25 tour of America. In 1837, Johnson became the first African American band leader to tour Europe; in London, he and his small band played for Victoria just prior to her ascension to the throne. In Europe they performed concerts and absorbed continental musical styles, widening their musical knowledge and practice. Upon his return, Johnson performed European compositions by Haydn and Handel and also introduced the Promenade Concert (of French origin) to America. Performing the latter concerts with white musicians, these shows constitute some of the first public interracial performances in the U. S. and became precursors to modern “pops” concerts. Throughout his career he remained musically active in—and committed to—the black community, penning pieces that addressed slavery and abolition, as well as the Haitian Revolution. Johnson would also write music for the centennial of George Washington’s birth and for a ball honoring Charles Dickens during his 1842 visit to America.

Johnson’s pathbreaking career exerted a profound influence on American music; it seems not a stretch to consider him the Duke Ellington of the 19th century. In 1819, Robert Waln (1765–1836) famously noted Johnson’s “remarkable taste in distorting a sentimental, simple, and beautiful song, into a reel, jig or country-dance.” As scholars have pointed out, such pleasurable distortion may be regarded as none other than the fledgling aesthetics of ragtime and jazz. Johnson died in 1844 following a protracted illness. Nevertheless, his ensemble—the Frank Johnson String and Brass Band (est. 1815)—lived on through the leadership of Joseph G. Anderson (1816–1873), who was a member of Johnson’s band in the 1830s and ‘40s and is said to have sustained the ensemble’s level of brilliance. Retaining the maestro’s band name, the ensemble lasted until the Civil War. During the war, Anderson was approached to train bands accompanying African American units.

“The silver cornet bestowed by Queen Victoria rested on the casket during the sad funeral procession [for Frank Johnson], a mute but eloquent symbol of his marvelous career. The work was at rest, but his work did not cease. Toussaint L’Ouverture, it is said, laid the principles of liberty so deep that they could not be uprooted in a century. Frank Johnson had so thoroughly imbued his colleagues with the principles of music, self-respect, and confidence that notwithstanding his death, the organization continued. Capt. Anderson followed in the steps of his predecessor…lessening somewhat the sphere of this band, but not lowering its artistic standard.”—The Southern Workman

Born in France, Auguste Edouart (1789–1861) made his first foray into art (hair art, specifically) in London, but as a silhouette artist lived and worked in England, Scotland and America, where he traveled extensively and made portraits of such eminent figures as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. Edouart spent five summers at Saratoga, making hundreds of silhouettes of visitors. The Metropolitan Museum of Art owns an example of the silhouette of Johnson, dated 1842, mounted on a plain sheet of paper along with a portrait of his wife, which can be viewed here: metmuseum.org. Edouart’s silhouette of Anderson was taken in 1844, the year that Johnson died. Found here together, the two silhouettes constitute a certain visual narrative of succession that heightens their appeal.

A rare likeness of a pioneer African American maestro poignantly paired with that of his successor.

PROVENANCE: Ex John R. Schott Collection.

REFERENCES: Vernay, Arthur Stannard. The Collection of American Silhouette Portraits Cut by August Edouart. 1913, cat. no. 1809, 1811; Bewley, John. Philadelphia Composers : Francis Johnson (1792–1844) at library.upenn.edu; de Lerma, Dominique-René. Francis B. “Frank” Johnson (1792–1844) at chevalierdesaintgeorges.homestead.com; Schwartz, Richard I. The Cornet Compendium–The History and Development of the Nineteenth-Century Cornet at angelfire.com; Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans : A History, 3rd Ed. (New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997), 107–110, 321 pp.; The Southern Workman and Hampton School Record, Vol. XXIX. No. 1. (January, 1900), p. 535.

CONDITION: Good, some toning and and light staining to background sheets; two chips at edges of the Anderson sheet.

Item #5021

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