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In Phlox, a stand of lavender, pink, and white phlox is captured at its peak. A profusion of blooms crowds the picture plane, emphasizing the abundant nature of the species. Johnson’s visible brushstrokes impart a lively quality to the image but are not loose to the point of abstraction. The palette of purples, blue-greens, and whites creates an overall cool tone that lends a subdued feeling to the composition. The loosely articulated background of gray-greens provides a sense of surrounding vegetation, while a more carefully rendered foreground clearly reveals that these plants are growing; they are not a still life of cut flowers. The close view eliminates the presence of sky, creating ambiguity about time and place. Johnson has chosen to depict the flowers as they appear in nature while imparting an air of mystery that engages the viewer.
In the painting, Johnson melds the categories of still life and landscape, a popular approach of late-century painters. As Johnson scholar John Baur has noted “[Phlox] is also, interestingly, a reversion to the minutely realist Pre-Raphaelite still lifes of artists…who preferred magnified views of growing things to dead objects on table tops.” [1] Although it is unclear whether Johnson was making a conscious appeal to the earlier aesthetic with this painting, it captures the idealized beauty of the natural specimen.
Notes:
[1] John I. H. Baur, “The Exact Brushwork of Mr. David Johnson, An American Landscape Painter, 1827-1908,” in American Art Journal 12, no. 4 (Autumn 1980), 65.
ProvenanceTo 1969
Lawrence A. Fleischman (1925-1997), New York, NY. [1]
From 1969
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Lawrence Fleischman, New York, February 8, 1969. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter from Margaret Platt (Secretary to Barbara B. Millhouse), February 8, 1969, Object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 12
1988-1989
Nature Transcribed: The Landscapes and Still-Life of David Johnson
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (11/5/1988-12/23/1988)
The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (1/31/1989-3/5/1989)
Georgia Art Museum, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (3/25/1989-5/7/1989)
National Academy of Design, New York, NY (7/10/1989-9/10/1989)
Cat. No. 38
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
1999-2000
Silent Things, Secret Things: Still Life from Rembrandt to the Millenium
Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM (9/19/1999-1/2/2000)
Published ReferencesMillhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 92-3.
Silent Things, Secret Things: Still Life Fron Rembrandt To The Millennium. Albuquerque, The Albequerque Museum, 1999: 74, illus. 75.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: illus. 26.
Baur, John I. H. “The Exact Brushwork of Mr. David Johnson, An American Landscape Painter, 1827-1908,” in American Art Journal, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Autumn 1980).
Mitchell, Mark. American Still Life, 1800-1960. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, June 2014.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 120, 121
DepartmentAmerican Art
Phlox
Artist
David Johnson
(1827 - 1908)
Date1886
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 26 x 20 7/8 in. (66 x 53 cm)
Image: 19 1/8 x 14 in. (48.6 x 35.6 cm)
Canvas: 19 3/4 x 14 1/2 in. (50.2 x 36.8 cm)
SignedDJ '86
Credit LineGift of Lawrence A. Fleischman in honor of Charles H. Babcock Sr.
CopyrightPublic domain
Object number1969.2.1
DescriptionBest known as a landscape artist, Johnson painted canvases characterized by a precision of line and clarity of light typical of Luminism. Late in his career he turned to still life subjects, which reflect the influence of Impressionism. In Phlox, a stand of lavender, pink, and white phlox is captured at its peak. A profusion of blooms crowds the picture plane, emphasizing the abundant nature of the species. Johnson’s visible brushstrokes impart a lively quality to the image but are not loose to the point of abstraction. The palette of purples, blue-greens, and whites creates an overall cool tone that lends a subdued feeling to the composition. The loosely articulated background of gray-greens provides a sense of surrounding vegetation, while a more carefully rendered foreground clearly reveals that these plants are growing; they are not a still life of cut flowers. The close view eliminates the presence of sky, creating ambiguity about time and place. Johnson has chosen to depict the flowers as they appear in nature while imparting an air of mystery that engages the viewer.
In the painting, Johnson melds the categories of still life and landscape, a popular approach of late-century painters. As Johnson scholar John Baur has noted “[Phlox] is also, interestingly, a reversion to the minutely realist Pre-Raphaelite still lifes of artists…who preferred magnified views of growing things to dead objects on table tops.” [1] Although it is unclear whether Johnson was making a conscious appeal to the earlier aesthetic with this painting, it captures the idealized beauty of the natural specimen.
Notes:
[1] John I. H. Baur, “The Exact Brushwork of Mr. David Johnson, An American Landscape Painter, 1827-1908,” in American Art Journal 12, no. 4 (Autumn 1980), 65.
ProvenanceTo 1969
Lawrence A. Fleischman (1925-1997), New York, NY. [1]
From 1969
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Lawrence Fleischman, New York, February 8, 1969. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter from Margaret Platt (Secretary to Barbara B. Millhouse), February 8, 1969, Object file.
[2] See note 1.
Exhibition History1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, NY (1/13/1971-1/31/1971)
Cat. No. 12
1988-1989
Nature Transcribed: The Landscapes and Still-Life of David Johnson
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (11/5/1988-12/23/1988)
The Art Gallery, University of Maryland, College Park, MD (1/31/1989-3/5/1989)
Georgia Art Museum, University of Georgia, Athens, GA (3/25/1989-5/7/1989)
National Academy of Design, New York, NY (7/10/1989-9/10/1989)
Cat. No. 38
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami, FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, IL (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
1999-2000
Silent Things, Secret Things: Still Life from Rembrandt to the Millenium
Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque, NM (9/19/1999-1/2/2000)
Published ReferencesMillhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 92-3.
Silent Things, Secret Things: Still Life Fron Rembrandt To The Millennium. Albuquerque, The Albequerque Museum, 1999: 74, illus. 75.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: illus. 26.
Baur, John I. H. “The Exact Brushwork of Mr. David Johnson, An American Landscape Painter, 1827-1908,” in American Art Journal, Vol. 12, No. 4 (Autumn 1980).
Mitchell, Mark. American Still Life, 1800-1960. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, June 2014.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 120, 121
Status
On viewCollections
circa 1765
