Johnson, Gerard the Elder

Johnson, Gerard the Elder (originally Garat Janssen) (bur. London, 30 July 1611).
Netherlandish-born sculptor and mason who moved to London, probably as a Protestant refugee, and became an English citizen in 1568. He built up a large practice chiefly as a tomb maker, though chimney-pieces and basins for fountains were also made in his Southwark workshop. A good example of his accomplished but uninspired work is the tomb of the 2nd Earl of Southampton at Titchfield, Hampshire (1592). Two of his sons became sculptors, Nicholas (d 1624) and Gerard the Younger. The latter's name lives on because he made the monument to Shakespeare (d 1616) in Holy Trinity church, Stratford-upon-Avon. As a work of art this is feeble, but it is one of only two portraits of Shakespeare generally accepted as an authentic likeness (the other is the Droeshout engraving). The most distinguished artist in the family seems to have been another son of Gerard the Elder, Bernard, as he is said to have been the principal mason for Northumberland House in the Strand and Audley End, Essex, which, although partially demolished, is still, in Sir John Summerson's words, ‘the most powerful and impressive of Jacobean houses’.