Lot 34
FRANK HANS JOHNSTON, O.S.A., A.R.C.A.
Additional Images
Literature:
Roger Burford Mason, A Grand Eye for Glory, A Life of Franz Johnston, Dundurn Press, Toronto, 1998, pages 12 and 78.
Note:
Departing from the Group of Seven in 1924, Franz Johnston “professed his desire to paint the Canadian landscape the way that he saw it, and not through the filter of any particular ideology.” A true individualist, he wielded a blatant, creative power in his manipulation of colour and style. Johnston affords Snow Scene with serenity and spaciousness. The landscape is crisp - a multitude of frosted blues and an astute rendering of the daylight on snow. Johnston contains the lonely grandeur of the winterized Canadian landscape into a striking yet delicate fantasy. In speaking of the North, Johnston once explained, “It slows up your thinking, and it’s a land where you have plenty of time to think… I felt as if I were in a another world.”