The Birmingham Museum of Art has acquired the work of the nation’s first known professional African American painter

Joshua Johnson, widely recognized as the first professional African American painter known to have worked in the United States, is now immortalized in the Birmingham Museum of Art.

Curators recently acquired his portrait of Elizabeth Gilpin, who lived from 1804–1892.

“Because the BMA is a leading institution in the area of works made by African American and Black artists, we work to build on that collection, including through this purchase of Joshua Johnson’s portrait of Elizabeth Gilpin,” Katelyn Crawford, Birmingham Musuem of Arts curator of American art, told AL.com.

“In the BMA’s galleries, this painting expands the history we share about African American artists as well as about the experiences of children in the United States. This is now one of the earliest paintings in the BMA’s American art collection.”

In 1763, Johnson was born into slavery. He was enslaved by his white father until 1782, when he was freed at about 19 years old, according to Crawford.

Little is known about Johnson’s early life until Dec. 19, 1798, when he placed an ad in the Baltimore Intelligencer describing himself as a “self-taught genius.” The ad also suggested Johnson overcame “insuperable” racial discrimination, according to the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Johnson spent his career representing early nineteenth-century American life through his portraits.

“This painting is a rare work by an important American artist. Fewer than 100 works by Joshua Johnson still exist,” Crawford said. “Johnson’s portrait is now a permanent part of the Birmingham Museum of Art collection, a treasure for the city of Birmingham. Because of the painting’s rarity and its importance to the history of American art, it will be on display indefinitely.”