Portrait of Elizebeth Campion 1614 – 1673
Oil on canvas 30 x 24.25 Inches
Cornelius (Jassens) Johnson lived sometime in Kent … [and] painted pictures for several Gent. Familyes thereabouts – Augers Palmers. Hammond. & Bowyers &c. done mostly in the years 1630 & to 40.
Of these, Vertue singled out for especial praise: a Curious fine head of Sir Thomas Bowyer and the Lady Auger Bowyer. Called the Starr in the East for her remarkable beauty. Johnson was one of the most gifted portrait painters in England in the seventeenth century. He was born in London, the son of Flemish émigrés, and by December 1632 had risen to the post of |servant in ye quality of Picture Drawer to Charles I.
Johnson painted some of his most accomplished portraits during the 1630s and the feigned marble decoration of the cartouche in this portrait is a recurring stylistic motif. Johnson remained in royal employment until 1641, however, as Vertue describes, at the outbreak of the Civil War |Being terrified with those apprehensions & the constant persuasions of his wife went to Holland.
Johnson and his family left for Holland in October 1643, where he continued to paint into his final years.
The work of Cornelius Johnson is represented in many of the great country house collections and museums of England, including the Tate Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and Dulwich Picture Gallery.