Family and Friends

Johnson painted group portraits of local members of the African American community during a visit he made to his hometown (Florence, South Carolina) in 1944. The people in Folk Family and Three Little Children are not identified and Johnson provides few visual clues that indicate who the subjects are and why he chose to paint them. We can gather some information about the ages, relationships, and economic status of the subjects by looking at their relative sizes, poses, and clothes. Notice how the figures face forward, as if they are looking directly out of the painting.

Folk Family, around 1944 oil on plywood 66.2 x 50.4 cm (26 x 19 7/8 in.) Gift of the Harmon Foundation

Three Little Children, 1944 oil on paperboard 73.3 x 60.8 cm (28 7/8 x 24 in.) Gift of the Harmon Foundation

Does your family have any photo albums? Bring one or two photographs into class. Exchange these with a classmate. Can you guess anything about your classmate's family based upon visual clues only, such as the types of clothes the people are wearing, the background, or the body language of the figures? Return the photograph to your classmate and share information about your families with each other. If your classroom has a scanner, send a scanned image of your family photo to one of your keypals and post a message about your family to go with it.

Choose one figure in the group portraits above and pretend that you are that person. Write a paragraph introducing yourself. Think about the following questions: How would you describe your personality? What do you like to do? How old are you? What is your relationship to the other people in the painting? How do you know William H. Johnson? Why did he paint your portrait?