Burt William Johnson (April 25, 1890 – March 27, 1927)[Moore, Nancy Dustin Wall. Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California Before 1930. Los Angeles: Privately printed, 1975, p.130] was an American sculptor.
Biography
Johnson was born in Flint, Ohio. At the age of 13, he went to live for a year in Cornish, New Hampshire,
[Berryman, Florence Seville. "An American sculptor and his achievement". Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, Volume LXII Number 2, November 1928, pp.661-667] where his older sister Annetta Johnson Saint-Gaudens, wife of sculptor Louis Saint-Gaudens, was studying with Louis' brother, master sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.
[Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California 1786-1940. San Francisco: Hughes Publishing Company, 1986] Johnson moved to Claremont, California in 1907 to study at
Pomona College, and then to New York City in 1909 to study at the Art Students League of New York.
[ Arts and Decoration. Volume 6 Number 1, November 1915, p.6]
He worked with fellow sculptors James Earle Fraser, Robert I. Aitken and
George Bridgman, as well as his brother-in-law, Louis St. Gaudens.
[Fielding, Mantle. Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, Enlarged Edition. Greens Farms CT: Modern Books and Crafts, 1926/1974, p.189] Back in California after Louis St. Gaudens' death in 1913, he moved into the studio that his brother-in-law had created during a visit to Claremont.
Johnson remained active in both California and New York, and is well known for his statues honoring American soldiers of World War I, known as doughboys. Examples of these doughboy statues can be found in DeWitt Clinton Park[ Clinton War Memorial (Doughboy), De Witt Clinton Park, inaugurated 1930] and
Doughboy Park[ The Woodside Doughboy, Doughboy Park, Woodside, New York, inaugurated 1923] in New York City, the latter being named the best war memorial of its kind by the American Federation of Artists in 1928.[
Garfield Park in Pomona, California has another World War I tribute created by Johnson, dedicated in 1923, with an allegorical representation of Pomona, the Goddess of Fruit, beside a young man.][ Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1923, p.7 (photograph)] The Children's Tribute to the World War Heroes (1919) in Robert Keller Park in Huntington Park, California, depicts a barefoot girl holding the uniform caps of a sailor and a doughboy to her heart.[ (photographs); based on a public lecture given by Dr. Priscilla Schwarz, lecturer in art history,
Oklahoma State University, May 28, 2016, Pomona, California.]
Among his earlier works is The Spirit of Spanish Music, a fountain with the
bronze figure of a boy playing a flute, located in Lebus Court of the Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music at Pomona College.[ arthistory.pomona.edu][ www.pomona.edu/] His allegorical figures of Architecture and Sculpture decorate the exterior of the 1927 Fine Arts Building (Los Angeles), with additional reliefs near the top of the building's façade. The inside lobby has a fountain with sculptures of children, modeled by his daughter, Cynthia (age 3) and his son Harvey (age 5).[ publicartina.com] That son, Harvey W. Johnson (1921–2005), was a prominent Western artist and became president of the Cowboy Artists of America.[ CowboyArtistsofAmerica Harvey Johnson obituary][ About the Artist harveywjohnson.com official site]
In addition, Johnson's grandsons Casey Schwarz and Scott Lee Johnson continue the family involvement in sculpture.
There is also a granddaughter, Darcy Lynn a painter, and a great granddaughter, Tamsin Parker, a painter and animator.
In 1918, Johnson was a leading candidate to execute a memorial to
community leader and publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Gen. Harrison Gray Otis,.
who had died the year before.
The Los Angeles Evening Herald called him a "100 per cent American sculptor", and
pictured him "putting the finishing touches" on his model
for the memorial in a story announcing that the project would be delayed until after
the conclusion of the World War, since the amount of bronze needed to complete the work
"would be sufficient to construct two cannon".["Delay statue of general to help win present war",
Los Angeles Evening Herald, Number 149, April 24, 1918]
The project ultimately was awarded to Russian sculptor Prince Paul Troubetzkoy[Wood,
Helen B. "Los Angeles", American Art News, Volume XVII Number 21, March 1, 1919, p.3]
For his final project, the façade and lobby sculptures of the
Los Angeles Fine Arts Building, Johnson's
sister, Annetta Johnson Saint-Gaudens, and her son Paul St Gaudens, both sculptors
themselves, provided assistance,[Cuba, Stan. The Denver Artists Guild: Its Founding Members; An Illustrated History. Denver: History Colorado, 2015] as did Santa Monica, California sculptor Merrell Gage.[ Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1927, p.A4 (Burt Johnson obituary)]
Burt Johnson died in Claremont, California, on March 27, 1927, at the age of 36. He is buried next to his wife Ottilie M. Johnson (1891–1980) in Oak Park Cemetery, Claremont, California, USA.
Selected works
Location known
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The Spirit of Spanish Music (1916)
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Albert John Cook memorial tablet (1917)
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Greek Theater commemorative tablet (dedicated 1917)
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Children's Tribute to the World War Heroes (1919)
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Elisha Newton Dimick Memorial (1921)
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World War Memorial Panel
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Portrait bust (c.1921) of Dr Henry Kingman (1864–1921), early pastor
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Theodore Edwin Norton Memorial Fountain and Tablet (1922)
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Anna I. Young Memorial Panel (1923)
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Pomona World War I Memorial
[ (photographs)] ( Goddess of Fruit) (1923)
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Doughboy Monument (1923)
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The Returned Soldier (1923)
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Lobby and façade sculptures (1926)
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Flanders Field Doughboy (1927, dedicated 1930)
Location unknown
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The Little Director
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Hope Braithwaite Smith memorial tablet (1917)
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Christ Panel
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Piping Faun, sculpture in front of the organ screen, right side of the proscenium, in Grauman's (1918) Los Angeles, California, US
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The Answering Note
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Little Sculptor Boy,
Gallery
Image:WoodsideDoughboy.jpg|Statue at Doughboy Park in Woodside, Queens
File:Flanders doughboy Clinton Pk sunny jeh.jpg|DeWitt Clinton Park in Manhattan also has a doughboy statue
File:Johnson burt garfield park pomona 1.jpg| Goddess of Fruit World War I memorial in Garfield Park, Pomona, California
File:Johnson spanish music 1916 2.jpg| The Spirit of Spanish Music (aka Pastoral Flutist) was commissioned by the Pomona College Class of 1915, installed in 1916 and restored in 2015
File:spanish music 1916-02-10 2.jpg|studio snapshot of Burt W. Johnson, working on his plaster model of The Spirit of Spanish Music (1916)
File:little director 1916-02-10.jpg|studio snapshot of working model of The Little Director, sculpture for the San Diego (California) home of Mr and Mrs A.S. Bridges (1916)
File:johnson studio little director.jpg|Johnson's studio in Claremont, California, with miniature of The Little Director at right of desk
File:Johnson burt cook memorial 1.jpg|Cook Memorial Tablet (1917), Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, California
File:johnson christ panel 1917.jpg| Christ Panel (April 1917), St Francis Hospital, La Crosse, Wisconsin
File:Johnson burt greek theater tablet 2.jpg|Greek Theater Tablet (dedicated 1917), Pomona College Museum of Art, Claremont, California
File:Johnson_burt_huntington_park_3.jpg| Children's Tribute to the World War Heroes (1919), Huntington Park, California
File:College_park_georgia_world_war_memorial_1.jpg|World War I memorial plaque, College Park, Georgia (1921)
File:Johnson kingman 1.jpg|Portrait bust of Dr Henry Kingman (c.1921), United Church of Christ, Claremont, California, US
File:Johnson burt norton memorial 9.jpg|Theodore Edwin Norton Memorial Fountain (1922, detail), Pomona College, Claremont, California
File:Johnson burt anna young memorial 1.jpg|Memorial plaque for Anna I. Young (1923), Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia, US
File:johnson sculptor boy.jpg| Little Sculptor Boy, at one time in Lobby of Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles, California (c.1927)
File:Fine Arts Building of Los Angeles interior.png|Fountain sculpture group in Lobby of , Los Angeles
File:Johnson burt fine arts lobby 0.jpg|Fountain sculptures, including The High Note (1926), Lobby of the Fine Arts Building, 7th Street, Los Angeles
File:Johnson_burt_fine_arts_building_facade_architecture_1.jpg| Architecture, façade sculpture at 4th floor, left side, of Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles
File:Johnson_burt_fine_arts_building_facade_sculpture_1.jpg| Sculpture, façade sculpture at 4th floor, right side, of Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles
File:Johnson_burt_fine_arts_facade_top_left_2.jpg|Façade bas-relief at top, left side, of Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles
File:Johnson_burt_fine_arts_facade_top_right_1.jpg|Façade bas-relief at top, right side, of Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles
File:Johnson_burt_fine_arts_facade_middle.jpg|Façade sculptures at 10th floor, left and right side, of Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles
External links
