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Mt. Shuksan Moonlight 1934 25" x 30"
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Born on a ranch near Big Grove, Iowa, Johnson had an early desire to paint the western genre with which he grew up. When his family moved to Milwaukee, Johnson studied with F. W. Heine and Richard Lorenz. He was able to take instruction for a short while at the Art Students League in 1895, but returned to NYC in 1902 for more comprehensive training with Robert Henri, William Merritt Chase and John Twachtman. Johnson secured work as a magazine illustrator for “Field and Stream” and for Zane Grey’s books. This allowed him to travel to the Southwest and to summer at a Colorado ranch, which increased his love of the West. Clyde Forsythe, another New York illustrator and close friend, moved home to California and Johnson soon followed. They shared a studio in Alhambra and founded the Biltmore Gallery in the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. Of the four most highly regarded Western painters; C. M. Russell, Frederic Remington, W. R. Leigh and Frank Tenney Johnson; Leigh and Johnson were the only two to be elected National Academicians. Remington was an Associate (ANA), while Leigh was not elected an Associate until he was 87 years old. Johnson became a full National Academician in 1937, three years after “Mt. Shuksan, Moonlight” (1934) was painted. Braarud Fine Art is interested in all works by Frank Tenney Johnson, both oils and watercolors. |