John Christen Johansen
American, 1876 - 1964
He studied in Ohio with Frank Duveneck and in Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago with John Vanderpoel and Frederick Warren Freer. He went to Paris around 1898 and studied at the Academie Julian and at James Whistlers Academie Carmen.
Returning to Chicago around 1905 and teaching at the Art Institute, he married M. Jean MacLane, a fellow student and skilled figure painter. They traveled abroad before settling in New York City, although Johansen apparently kept his Chicago studio until 1907.
His painting titled "Woman Sewing" shares a quiet mood with "Golden Age" by Illinois painter Walter Marshall Clute (1870-1915). Both artists, contemporaries and peers, were concerned with the subtle effects of light filtering through gauzy curtains into quiet domestic interiors. Johansens subject however, is actively engaged at her sewing machine while Clutes is reading to a young girl.
He was active as a landscape painter particularly during his years in Chicago, specializing in Tonal evening scenes. A trip to Venice around 1905 resulted in a group of much-praised works.
Later he became known as a portraitist, and he also created a widely exhibited series of industrial shipyard pictures during World War I. In 1919, he and his wife were commissioned by the National Art Committee to paint portraits of important international figures involved with the war.
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