Item Overview
Description: William Henry Johnson (DC, South Carolina1901 - 1970) | Oil, Still Life
signed ' WH Johnson' (lower left);
Dimensions: 22 by 30 inches, 26 1/2 x 34 1/2 inches (overall)
Condition Report: Has a patch on the back of the canvas, has some cracks, frame has some paint loss.
Provenance: Private collection of New York.
Biography from the Archives of askART
Biography photo for William Henry Johnson
Known for distinctive modernist images of African American life, William Johnson died destitute and deranged from syphilis, having spent the last twenty-three years of his life in the Central Islip Sate Hospital on Long Island. He stopped painting in 1956.
One of his chief sponsors and exhibitors for his art was the New York Harmon Foundation, which, in 1929, presented him the "Award for Distinguished Achievements Among Negroes in the Fine Arts Field." Most of his work was handed over to the Harmon Foundation, now defunct, by a court that deemed his works without value. In turn the Foundation donated the work to the Smithsonian Institution, which had a retrospective of his work in 1970.
In 1997, a lawsuit was filed by his relatives claiming the Smithsonian Institution had over 1000 works on paper illegally.
PROVENANCE
Private Collection from New Jersey
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Location: This item ships from New York.

Has a patch on the back of the canvas, has some cracks,frame has some paint loss