biographie de Frank Tenney JOHNSON (1874-1939)

Birth place: Big Grove, Pottawattamie County, IA

Death place: Los Angeles, CA

Addresses: Alhambra, CA, from the 1920s

Profession: Painter, illustrator

Studied: apprenticed to panorama painter F. Heine, in Milwaukee, 1888; R. Lorenz, 1889; ASL, 1895, with Henri, Chase, Mora, K.H. Miller

Exhibited: AIC; S. Indp. A., 1917; Corcoran Gal., 1919; Wisc. P&S, 1919 (prize); SC, 1923 (prize); Texas Wild Flower Competition, 1929 (prize); Allied AA, 1929 (medal); Painters of the West, 1930 (medal); Ebell Club, Los Angeles, 1933 (prize).

Member: Grand Central Gals.; ANA, 1929; NA, 1937; SC; NAC (life); Allied AA; AWCS; NYWCC; Laguna Beach AA; California AC; Painters of the West; Highland Park SA, Dallas; Fnd. Western Artists; San Gabriel AG.

Work: NGA; NMAA; NAC; Dallas AA; Highland Park Soc. Art, Dallas; Fort Worth MA; Women's Club, Fort Worth; Municipal Art Gal., Phoenix; New Grand Hotel, Billings, MT; Paramount Theatre, NYC; curtain murals, Carthay Circle Theatre, Los Angeles; Chicago Athletic Club; Amherst College; Royal Palace, Copenhagen; Ball State Teachers College; Dunedin Mus., New Zealand.

Comments: A successful illustrator of Zane Grey books, he was later best known for his western scenes under moonlight and stars. Moved from NYC to California in 1920s, and shared a studio with Clyde Forsythe. They established the Biltmore Gal. in Los Angeles in order to sell their work. Specialty: cowboys, early settlers and Native Americans.

Sources: WW38; Hughes, Artists in California, 288-89; Ness & Orwig, Iowa Artists of the First Hundred Years, 111-112; P&H Samuels, 253; 300 Years of American Art, 662.