Cornelius Johnson (born Cornelis Janssens van Ceulen,[a] Dutch: [kɔrˈneːlɪ ˈɕɑnsəns fɑŋ ˈkøːlə(n)];[b] bapt.

Johnson was born to Dutch or Flemish parents in London – his father had been a religious refugee from Antwerp,[2] and his paternal grandfather had come from Cologne.

[16] He was given parliamentary permission to travel " ... and to cary with him such pictures and colours, bedding, household stuff, pewter, and brass as belongs to himself".

"Johnson's art was best suited to the relative intimacy of the bust length portrait in which, with a certain detachment, he captured the reticence of the English landed gentry and minor aristocracy".

The wet-over-dry paint layering of the costumes (see 'Technique' below) and the fictive ovals allowed contributions from others in the studio, as did the demand for additional versions.

[31] During the first few years of his career, a network of patronage by five families enabled Johnson to establish his reputation as a painter on the national stage.

[14] Despite having only received a few commissions from the crown, in 1632, Johnson was appointed as "his Majesty's servant in the quality of Picture drawer" by Charles I.

[31] He was one of the few artists in England at this time who consistently signed and dated their work, except for his later full-lengths, which his clients may have hoped would be mistaken for more expensive Van Dycks.

"His figures are usually placed in front of dark, undefined backgrounds with focus on their faces and elaborate costumes that denote their social standing.

His early works (for example the 1620 portrait of Sir Alexander Temple) were described by C. H. Collins Baker as "flat wooden and inanimate".

His earliest three-quarter length work is a pair of portraits of Thomas Boothby and his wife painted in 1619 and sold by the Weiss Gallery in 1988.

[38] Another three-quarter length portrait (of Lord Keeper Coventry) is dated 1623, and shows a certain lack of skill in dealing with the body, which is overcome in later works.

[40] The London Painters and Stainers company has a 1623/4 portrait of Clement Pargeter, William Peacock and Thomas Babb that may be by Johnson.

[44] These include the presence of both wet-in-wet and discreet layering; calculated variations in brushwork and the use of high quality (and expensive) pigments that survived aging well.

Johnson’s use of azurite blue is a primary example of how he utilized the character of each pigment to yield distinctive textures and eye-catching details.

"[45] Johnson was consulted by Théodore de Mayerne on handling orpiment (a poisonous yellow pigment) and painted his portrait.

[46][47] In addition to describing his usage of orpiment to de Mayerne, Johnson also told Daniel King his technique for draperies.

For blue draperies, he first laid in "all the background folds and shadows ... neatly and perfectly finished" with "indico ground in drying oiland mixt w[i]th smalt and white".

Johnson's work was regularly sold at these auctions – for example lot 150 at a sale of paintings at Exeter Exchange in the Strand, 3 April 1690.

[49] Karen Hearn, Honorary Professor at UCL, curated a display of Johnson's work which was held at the National Portrait Gallery from April to September 2015.

[55] Hearn has argued that in his later years in the Netherlands, he added the words "van Ceulen" ("from Cologne") to his signature as a marketing technique to emphasize his foreign origins.

The usual form of his signature when the name is given in full is invariably, in all the pictures painted after 1643 which I have seen : ' Cornelius Jonson van Ceulen.'