Frank Tenney Johnson 1874–1939

Born and raised in the Midwest, Frank Tenney Johnson began formal art training in Milwaukee, and later went to New York City, where his teachers included Robert Henri and William Merritt Chase. Starting his career in New York, he became successful as an illustrator for both magazines and books, alongside easel painting. However, at every opportunity, Johnson traveled to the American West, spending time with Charles Russell in Montana, working at a ranch in Colorado, and traversing the Southwest. By 1920, the success of his western canvases allowed him to focus exclusively on painting. He moved to Southern California using Los Angeles as a base for his studio, while operating galleries in Los Angeles; Cody, Wyoming; and New York.

“While Frank Tenney Johnson portrayed very much the same subjects as Remington and Russell, his purpose was to add a strong aesthetic beauty to the paintings he created, which carried his work considerably beyond that of the others.”

– Harold McCracken, The Frank Tenney Johnson Book