Reverend Samuel Stillman by John Johnston

This portrait is by John Johnston, a Revolutionary War veteran who began his career as a decorative painter after the war. He later established himself as one of the few portrait painters in Boston before Gilbert Stuart’s arrival in 1805. His style was greatly influenced by John Singleton Copley and the Massachusetts colonial tradition.

Samuel Stillman (1737–1807) was an American Baptist minister who advocated for the separation of church and state, the abolition of slavery, and the extinction of religious establishments. Many of his ideas would eventually be incorporated into the larger American political system.