John Johnston

John Johnston painted formal portraits in late 18th-century style, often capturing sitters in sober coats and precise detail. In 1788 he recorded a man in a gray coat, shoulders angled toward the light, against a plain backdrop that keeps the focus on the sitter’s face and hands. His work belongs to the same plain-speaking tradition used by shopkeepers and merchants who wanted a dignified record. Tap the coat and collar in Man in a Gray Coat to see how light and fabric meet under still candlelit corners of a Glasgow drawing room.