William H. Johnson (1901-1970)

William H. Johnson (1901-1970)

William H. Johnson at easel, c. 1930; William H. Johnson: An American Modern, Teresa G. Gionis, 2011; p.104

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William Henry Johnson was born in Florence, South Carolina in 1901.

His mother, Alice Johnson, was of African American and Native American ancestry and his father (who was not married to his mother) was white.

Alice soon married a local African American man and they had four additional children. William was interested in drawing at an early age, copying cartoon characters. When he was 18, he dropped out of school and accompanied his uncle to New York in search of better job opportunities.

Two years later, when he was 20 years old, he had saved enough money to enroll at the National Academy of Design to study art. Johnson showed tremendous promise at the NAD and came to the attention of two well-respected painters, Charles Hawthorne and George Luks. They mentored him and raised enough money forJohnson to travel to Paris.

Hawthorne suggested Johnson might have more success as a black artist in Europe initially, and upon proving himself there, possibly return to the States.

One of Johnson’s greatest influences in France was the work of Chaim

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Soutine. Soutine’s paintings were a step further than the Ashcan style works of Luks; they were Expressionist, and full of energy and emotion. Landscapes, seascapes and buildings were frenzied, distorted and thickly painted.

In 1929, Johnson met German Expressionist sculptor and printmaker, Christoph Voll, along with his wife Erna, and Erna’s older sister, Holcha Krake. Erna was an art student at the Dresden Kunstakademie when she met Voll, and Holcha specialized in textile art and ceramics. The three were only passing through Cagnes-sur Mer, on a tour of Europe’s museums and art centers when they met Johnson, and they invited him to come along. The newly formed band of kindred spirits sailed to Corsica.

Johnson was twenty-eight and Holcha was forty-four, but they fell in love almost immediately. Upon completion of their European tour, the Volls returned to Karlsruhe for fall classes at the Kunstakademie and Holcha returned to her home of Odense, Denmark to help her middle sister care for her elderly mother. Johnson boarded a ship headed for America.

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Lot 27 • Self Portrait c. 1921-26 pencil drawing 17-1/2 x 14-1/2 inches Signed Provenance: the estate of Holcha Krake; by descent to her sister Erna Voll. Hence by descent in the family.

This drawing was made while William Henry Johnson was a student at the National Academy of Design from 1921-1926. $10,000-15,000

Back in New York, he reunited with Ashcan painter, George Luks, who had briefly employed Johnson prior to his earlier departure to France. Luks was impressed with Johnson’s progress as an artist and nominated him for the Harmon Foundation’s annual award for Distinguished Achievements Among Negroes in the Fine Arts Field.

Johnson won the Gold Medal and the four hundred dollar cash prize. After a brief visit to his home in Florence, South Carolina, he returned to New York, but not to stay-- he had decided to return to Europe and make it his home.

Johnson’s destination was the Danish island of Funen, in southern Denmark.

Odense is the largest city on the island (third in Denmark). Coastal towns like Kerteminde have a population of only around 5000 people. It was in Kerteminde that William and Holcha

were married in the summer of 1930.

The couple also decided to make the fishing village their home. In Homecoming, The Art and Life of William H. Johnson, author Richard Powell describes Kerteminde: ..at the time of Johnson’s arrival it enjoyed a reputation as one of Denmark’s best summer vacation spots…Though Kertiminde’s primary industry was fishing, travel brochures mentioned the elegant and popular Tornøes Hotel, the small but adequate strip of bathing beach, and Kertiminde’s unique “mother-of-pearl” sunlight.

William and Holcha presented some local joint exhibitions of their work for the first few years. In 1931-1932, they traveled to Tunisia. Johnson believed that it was an organic endeavor for him—almost instinctual, but also he was influenced by the Expressionists, many of whom visited Africa in an

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Lot 28 • Portrait of a Woman 1926 pencil drawing on Strathmore paper 25 x 19 inches Signed verso; dated recto $5,000-10,000 Provenance: The estate of Holcha Krake; by descent to her sister Erna Voll. Hence by descent in the family This drawing directly relates to an oil painting by W.H. Johnson in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a gift of the Harmon Foundation. http://browse.americanartcollaborative.org/object/saam/1967.59.677.html The drawing was made while William Henry Johnson was a student at the National Academy of Design from 1921-1926.

effort to become more “primitive” or elemental in their approach to art— not over-intellectualized. He often remarked he hoped to find the “real me” there. That said, he had always felt a parallel between the folk-culture of the small Danish village and the rural South in the U.S. Though he continued to have some success exhibiting and selling works in the U.S., mainly through the Harmon Foundation, he actually sold more paintings in Kertiminde and Copenhagen. This made for lean financial times for Johnson.

Johnson admired the woodcut prints made by the Expressionists, especially the German, Max Beckmann, and the Norwegian, Edvard Munch. Johnson

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met Munch in 1932, introduced by Pola Gauguin, the son of painter Paul Gauguin, and a leading art critic in Oslo. Johnson had an exhibition at Blomqvist Gallery, a well-established institution in Oslo whose clients were wealthy local collectors, in 1935. After nearly three and a half years traveling and painting throughout Norway, the Johnsons returned to Denmark.

Upon their return they learned of the rise of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party and the condemnation of modern art and artists by Adolf Hitler. Christoph Voll had been fired from his teaching position, and his works had been included in the infamous “Degenerate Art” exhibit in 1937. Fearing invasion of Denmark by the Nazis, William and Holcha fled to the United States.

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Lot 29 • Portrait of a Man c. 1921-26 pencil drawing 25 x 19 inches signed verso Provenance: The estate of Holcha Krake; by descent to her sister Erna Voll. Hence by descent in the family This drawing directly relates to an oil painting by W.H. Johnson in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, a gift of the Harmon Foundation. http://browse.americanartcollaborative.org/object/saam/1967.59.683.html The drawing was made while William Henry Johnson at the National Academy of Design from 1921-1926. $5,000-10,000

The couple arrived in Harlem in the autumn of 1938 and stayed for awhile with friends. With no real place to live and struggling financially, it was a tremendous boost when Johnson gained a teaching position in 1939 at the Harlem Community Art Center.

He worked beside important artists, such as Henry Bannarn, Selma Burke, Charles Alston, Jacob Lawrence, and Norman Lewis. This year was an important turning point in the career of the painter, as he focused his attention to the black figure as subject matter.

Johnson became enamored with the work of Horace Pippin and Jacob Lawrence and decided to change his style to what he called “primitive” (he had actually deemed himself a “primitive” earlier in his career, influenced by Paul Gauguin’s adoption of the term as a mindset— not a style of painting). Johnson’s new style embraced simplicity, and his subjects were calm and self-assured

of their identity. He enjoyed his most productive period from 1939 through the early 1940s. In 1943, Holcha died of breast cancer, and Johnson returned to Florence. He painted portraits and local scenes in his new style, but succumbed to grief about losing Holcha. In his devastated state, he developed a plan to return to Denmark to marry Holcha’s sister, Erna. His proposal was rejected by Erna, but he remained with the Krake family for six months. He then moved to Oslo with the intention to exhibit his work there, but was in a state of declined mental health and was found wandering the streets. He was taken in by the Traveler’s Aid Society and shipped back to New York, where he was admitted to Long Island’s Central Islip State hospital in 1947.

He remained there until his death in 1970, unable to recognize anyone and unable to paint. f

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Lot 10 • Landscape from Kerteminde c. 1930-1938 oil on burlap 28-1/2 x 27-1/2 inches (framed) Signed verso in ink.

Inscribed, “Fra Ragnar Langes dodsbo. Fiskergade 24. Kerteminde” Housed in the original painted wooden frame (Rammeliste) crafted by the artist.

Provenance: The estate of Regnar Lange. Hence by descent in the family. $40,000-60,000

Regnar Lange (1897-1963) was a Danish painter residing in Kerteminde, known as Maleren fra Lillestranden/ the painter from Lillestranden. Lange and Johnson were of similar age and became good friends when Johnson arrived in Kerteminde in 1930. They exhibited together twice at the Weimanns udstilling / Weimanns Exhibition in Magelos, Odense and Johnson also painted a portrait of Regnar Lange. William Henry Johnson lived in Kerteminde in the period 1930-1935, 1938 and 1946-1947.

Kerteminde is located on the island of Funen, Denmark. A small harbor town surrounded by farms and with a population of less than 6000.

The people of Kerteminde welcomed Johnson warmly and the Danish straightforward behavior, and Danish humorous attitude to authorities and life itself, seemed to have appealed Johnson. The town people referred to him as “Mr. Johnson” and there were many eyewitness accounts about the distinctive African American painter who had settled down in Kerteminde and wandered the streets with his sketchbook. Johnson had chosen

a path different from most and also became the “talk of the town.”

Johnson’s physical painting methods no doubt also helped establish his local reputation, where he, without consideration of the judgement of passers-by, would position himself in odd places to find new perspectives, as well as use a concave mirror that distorted the perspective even further, all to create a dramatic expressive effect.

Johnson painted many landscapes from Kerteminde and its surroundings.

In an Danish interview from 1944 he said “ I have never worked so well as I did in Kerteminde. Nowhere else did I receive more peace of mind, nowhere else did I find better motifs.

The wooden frame is known in Danish as Rammeliste. It was usually hand built by painters with little resources to have their works professionally framed. By using a Rammeliste, the artists could display their works giving the client an idea how it would look framed. It was also practical as the thin wooden frame could serve as a passe-partout for future framing.

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Though Kertiminde’s primary industry was fishing, travel brochures mentioned the elegant and popular Tornøes Hotel, the small but adequate strip of bathing beach, and Kertiminde’s unique “mother-of-pearl” sunlight.

Powell, Richard J., and William H. Johnson. Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson.

National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1991.

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At the Harlem Art Center, June 6, 1939. Jacob Lawrence (far left); William H. Johnson (front, left center); Gwendolyn Knight (rear center).

Powell, Richard J., and William H. Johnson. Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1991: 125.

Announcement for exhibition at the Artist’s Gallery, NYC, 1939.

Powell, Richard J., and William H. Johnson. Homecoming: The Art and Life of William H. Johnson. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1991: 125.

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