Edwin Forrest

David Johnson created the oil-on-canvas portrait of Edwin Forrest in 1871. Following its completion, the work remained in the possession of the artist's wife, Marie Louise Johnson, in Walden, New York. On May 20, 1919, she sold the painting to Thomas B. Clarke of New York, a transaction documented in annotated exhibition catalogs and gallery files.

Upon Clarke's death, the portrait became part of his estate and was subsequently sold on January 29, 1936, through M. Knoedler & Co. to the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust in Pittsburgh. The trust eventually gifted the artwork to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1947, where it remains part of the Andrew W. Mellon collection.

Edwin Forrest, painted by David Johnson in 1871, is an oil on canvas portrait (61.3 × 51.1 cm) that entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., as part of the Andrew W. Mellon collection and remains on view there. The work was originally owned by the artist’s widow, Marie Louise Johnson, and was sold in 1919 to Thomas B. Clarke of New York; Clarke’s estate later transferred it through M. Knoedler & Co. to the Mellon Trust, which gifted the painting to the NGA in 1947. It was documented in the 1928 Philadelphia Museum of Art exhibition catalogue of Clarke’s collection, indicating prior public display.