Franz Johnston
| Frank Johnston | |
|---|---|
Frank Johnston, 1930
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| Born |
Francis Hans Johnston June 19, 1888 Toronto, Ontario |
| Died | July 19, 1949 (aged 61) Toronto, Ontario |
| Known for | painting |
Frank Johnston (June 19, 1888 – July 19, 1949) was a Canadian artist associated with the Group of Seven.
Frank (Franz) Johnston was born on June 19, 1888 in Toronto. Like many other Group members, he joined Grip Engraving Co. as a commercial artist. He studied in Germany from 1904 to 1907. Although his official association with the Group of Seven was brief, his friendship with the artists dated back over a much longer period. In 1910, he left for the United States where he studied art in Philadelphia and worked in commercial design in New York. Although an original member of the Group, Johnston's association was brief. He did take part in the Group's first exhibition of 1920, but by 1921 he had left Toronto to become Principal at the Winnipeg School of Art. In the earlier years of their friendship, Johnston had joined MacDonald and Harris on their journeys to Algoma. His paintings from those years express a strong decorative interpretation of the landscape. In later years, the artist's style became more realistic and revealed a strong fascination with the qualities of light. His landscape paintings became very full of images reflected on water. In 1927, Johnston changed his name to the more exotic title of `Franz' Johnston. He painted over 250 paintings in his entire career.
Johnston had much in common with these artists. Like them, in the years before World War I he used his spare time to pursue landscape painting, through sketching trips around Toronto and farther north to Bon Echo near Algonquin Park and to Hearst, north of Lake Superior—a source of inspiration for him. An eager participant in Group activities, Johnston went on all the Algoma trips except the last. Johnston did not use the techniques of Harris and MacDonald but, employing tempera rather than oil paint, he searched out the pattern and texture of his subject.
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