John Johansen

Painter John Christen Johansen was born in Denmark, but married the American painter Jean MacLane. Their son John MacLane Johansen later became a well-known architect. John Christen became a well-known portraitist and studied in Cincinnati, Chicago and New York from 1890-1903. In 1898, he went to Paris where he studied at the Académie Julian, and learned academic techniques while being exposed to the ideas of modernism. Later he taught in Chicago and New York after having lived in Venezia for two years. In New York he opened his first studio.

Johansen’s portraits included many well-known and high-ranked politicians in the US. In 1919, back in Paris, he also painted the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, ordered by the US Congress. He combined luministic, tonalistic, and impressionistic styles and specialized in landscapes, portraits, and interior scenes. His son John M. Johansen was to become one of America’s most famous architects.

In 1932 he could only compete “hors concours” because he was also a member of the jury for the art genre of painting. No picture of his painting Land of the Hunters could be found. However, there is a brief description from a Pittsburgh newspaper in 1924: “Mr. Johansen’s contribution this year is The Land of the Hunter, a somewhat impressionistic painting, with canyon walls in the background and deer fleeing before the onslaught of two bowmen in the front of the picture.”