The secrets of the life of John Young Johnstone may never be known. Possessed with a dichotomous angst to be at once famous and yet unknown, he lived in estranged oblivion from society and died unwept. There are no substantive records chronicling his life anywhere. We must therefore depend on the evidence of his art for whatever estimates we make of him.
Born on November 12th, 1987, in Montreal, John Young Johnstone took his early art instruction from William Brymner (Canadian, 1855-1925) at the Art Association of Montreal and later studied with Lucien Simon (French, 1861-1945) and Emile-René Ménard (French, 1862-1930) at l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris. Despite his associations with such celebrated Canadian artists of his time as Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté (Canadian, 1869-1937) and Alfred Laliberté (Canadian, 1878-1953), Johnstone remained a reclusive personality, as if suffering from a kind of ennui, which he endured by submitting to heavy drinking. Hardly a puritan, he was a handsome man who enjoyed a good living and while he remained a bachelor all his life, he suffered several failed romances, including one with a young woman named Cécile Bérard who later married the well-known art dealer William Watson (Canadian, 1887-1973). Art and alcohol were his compulsive passions.
John Young Johnstone’s paintings received attention as early as 1911 when his work was first exhibited at the Art Association of Montreal. Indeed, the Association exhibited his work intermittently until 1925, as did the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts to which he was admitted as an associate member in 1920, exhibiting from 1915 to 1923. He was a member of the Pen and Pencil Club and the short-lived Beaver Hall Group, and although teaching was not really a compatible occupation for the solitary painter, he found it financially necessary to teach at the Council of Arts and Manufacturers in Montreal....
This text is from Galerie Walter Klinkhoff's John Young Johnstone Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue (2005). For the complete text, please buy the limited edition catalogue $20.
© Galerie Walter Klinkhoff Inc.
John Y. Johnstone Exhibitions at Klinkhoff
JOHN YOUNG JOHNSTONE
32nd Annual Retrospective Exhibition
September 17 - October 1, 2005
Buy the limited edition catalogue $20
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