John Christen Johansen

John Christen Johansen (Danish-American, 1876 - 1964). Was considered one of the leading portraitists of his day, receiving numerous important commissions and many honors. He grew up in Chicago, and from 1891-1897 he attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, studying with, among others, Frank Duveneck (1848-1919). He then went to Paris, where he attended the Académie Julian and briefly the class of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Returning to Chicago in 1901, he taught at the Art Institute until 1906, when he went to Venice for two years. In 1908 he opened his studio in New York, where he worked for the rest of his career, also maintaining a summer studio in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, after 1917. He painted landscapes, interiors, and figure paintings, but achieved his greatest success with his portraits. He was married to the artist Myrtle Jean MacLane (1878-1964), who was as well known for her portraits of women and children as he was for his portraits of men.

At the conclusion of World War I, Johansen was commissioned by the U.S. government to document the signing of the Treaty of Versailles which today hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Other portraits include the original Presidential portrait of President Herbert Hoover, official U.S. Department of Justice portrait of Attorney General Robert H. Jackson (which later became the basis of the official U.S. Supreme Court portrait of Justice Robert H. Jackson), official Vermont State House portrait of Governor Percival Clement, two works in the United States Capitol, and works in the collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, National Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Academy of Design, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Richmond Art