David Claypoole Johnston

American (1799-1865)

Born in Philadelphia in 1798, American painter, printmaker, satirical artist, and cartoonist,  David Claypoole Johnston was as an apprentice to Philadelphia engraver Francis Kearney from 1815-1819. 

Johnston’s art career began when he settled in Boston where he made the first commercially successful American lithographs, beginning with an illustration for the Boston Monthly Magazine in December, 1835. Between 1828 and 1849, Johnston published nine volumes of his career-launching publication “Scraps,” each highlighting the artist’s etched vignettes satirizing aspects of American life.

Collectively, Johnston illustrated more than forty books and made more than one-hundred paintings. Johnston’s work is held in permanent collections of the American Antiquarian Society, Boston Anthenaeum, Harvard University and Syracuse University.