Artwork story
About Edward and Sarah Rutter
The artist and artwork
Joshua Johnson painted Edward and Sarah Rutter around 1805 in oil on canvas. Born to an enslaved Black woman and a White man, Johnson apprenticed as a blacksmith before securing his freedom in 1782. He became the first known African American artist to work as a professional portraitist. Active in Baltimore from about 1789 to 1825, he painted sea captains, shopkeepers, merchants, and their families. These sitters are the children of Captain Joshua and Mary Pennington Rutter, presented with Johnson’s strong color and precise detail.
The world around it
The portrait was made in a young United States where declarations of liberty existed beside slavery and restrictive racial law. Baltimore supported a large free Black population, and Johnson lived in the waterfront neighborhood of Fells Point among African Americans, White Quakers, and abolitionists. The Met notes that his fortunes remained tied to shifting racial codes and most patrons were White. His success records personal achievement within an art market structured by race and class. Although Johnson is often placed within American folk art, the Met cautions that labels such as naive, provincial, or untrained can carry condescension and obscure artists’ practiced, craft-based skills.
A detail to notice
A dark background pushes both children forward, and their direct blue-eyed gazes meet the viewer. Edward’s black suit, broad white collar, and bright buttons answer Sarah’s white dress, gold necklace, and pointed red shoes. The siblings share a wicker basket of strawberries: Edward holds one handle and a leafy cluster above their red pet bird, while Sarah carries berries. A Met publication notes that baskets, strawberry leaves, and berries recur across Johnson’s unsigned paintings so consistently that they function almost like his signature. Here the repeating reds lead the eye from fruit to bird to shoes, making the children’s still poses feel active.
Look closer: materials, scale, and subjects
The recorded object is painting made in Oil on canvas and held in The American Wing.
Recorded dimensions include 36 x 32 in. (91.4 x 81.3 cm).
Subject terms include Birds, Strawberries, Girls, and Portraits. Treat them as guideposts, not a complete interpretation.
Collection history and public-domain source
The collection credit line is Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1965.
The individual artwork page and official image were verified as Public Domain on 2026-08-23.
No Context Gallery independently uses the public-domain image. The source museum has not endorsed, sponsored, or affiliated itself with these products.
Research sources
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