The Lord Is My Shepherd (Eastman Johnson)

For other uses, see The Lord is my shepherd (disambiguation).

The Lord Is My Shepherd is an 1863 oil-on-wood painting by American artist Eastman Johnson. The painting measures 16 5/8 x 13 1/8 in. (42.3 x 33.2 cm.) and is on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in Washington, D.C.^[1]

The Lord Is My Shepherd (1863) by Eastman Johnson

The title of the painting comes from Psalm 23, which begins with the line: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want." Johnson painted it just after the Emancipation Proclamation was announced in 1863. Its imagery includes an African-American man reading the first part of a Bible, possibly the Book of Exodus. He is sitting against a blue jacket, which may indicate service in the Union army. President Abraham Lincoln had recently authorized organization of the United States Colored Troops.^[2] This is one of several works by Eastman Johnson with African-American subjects.