John Greenwood (1727–1792)
• Was an early American portrait painter, engraver and auctioneer.
• His father died insolvent in 1742 and at about this time Greenwood apprenticed to Thomas Johnston.
• He left Boston in 1752 and traveled to the Dutch colony of Surinam in northeast South America.
• He stayed there for over five years, during which time he executed 115 portraits, before traveling again, this time to Europe, arriving in Amsterdam in May 1758.
• He settled there for a time to learn the art of making mezzotints, and was documented as a member of the Amsterdam Drawing Academy in 1758 by Jacob Otten Husly.
• After leaving Amsterdam, Greenwood stayed in Paris, then London, where he eventually settled in 1764.
• At the request of the Earl of Bute Greenwood made a journey, in July 1771, into Holland and France purchasing paintings.
• In 1776 he was occupying Ford's Rooms in the Haymarket as an art auctioneer.
• Greenwood died while on a visit to Margate, Kent on 16 September 1792, and is buried there.
• His wife, who survived him a few years, was buried at Chiswick, close to the tomb of Hogarth.
• His son John Greenwood, Jr. is the subject of a portrait by
William Beechey.
