biography of John Roy ROBERTSON (act.c.1857-1884)

Addresses: Baltimore, MD, & Wash., DC, active c. 1857-59; NYC, 1869-84

Profession: Portrait and figure painter

Studied: Ary Scheffer

Exhibited: Md. Hist. Soc.; Wash. A. Assoc., 1857-59; NAD, 1859-84; Paris Salon, 1866

Member: Wash. A. Assoc.

Work: Md. Hist. Soc.; Chicago Hist. Soc.

Comments: In 1863 he painted the portrait of Jefferson Davis. He may be some relation to John Ewart Robertson as both were in Baltimore about the same time: John Roy lists 20 Mulberry St., Baltimore, in 1859 (NAD); John Ewart lists 11 Mulberry St., Baltimore, in 1860 (PAFA).

Sources: G&W; Cowdrey, NAD; Naylor, NAD; Baltimore BD 1859; Lafferty; Rutledge, MHS; Graves, Dictionary; repro., Met, Mus., Life in America, no. 199; Washington Art Association Cat., 1857, 1859. More recently, see Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 385; McMahan, Artists of Washington, D.C.