The emphasis in this chapter is on representations of Johnson from his lifetime, as well as those from the years between his death and 1800. This terminus leaves out the Victorian paintings and engravings usually based upon scenes described in Boswell’s Life of Johnson. Along with portraits I will consider caricatures and other satiric representations, as well as some statues, busts, and engravings.

Early portraits

Until he was almost forty Samuel Johnson was nearly anonymous: only four short publications had appeared with his name (see chapter 2, “Publication history”). It is therefore unsurprising that there are no paintings of Johnson before he achieved fame. Two images supposedly dating from Johnson’s youth – the miniature said to have been worn by his wife in a bracelet and a moony young man leaning on a copy of Irene – are unlikely to be what they claim, and the so-called Infant Johnson, even if it should prove to be of him, is a later production of Sir Joshua Reynolds. The earliest verifiable visual representation of Johnson, in which he is also anonymous, appears in the allegorical frontispiece to the Gentleman’s Magazine (1747) showing the editor, Edward Cave, and his assistants. Johnson, second of those behind the six-foot Cave, towers recognizably over the others (figure 4).