Clarence Johnson (1894-1981)
An Ohio-born painter who spent most of his career in Pennsylvania, Clarence Johnson is most closely associated with the New Hope School, a group of artists who settled in and around Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Like Johnson, who studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (where he was awarded the prestigious Cresson Traveling Scholarship) and in Paris, these artists worked in an impressionistic style, and looked to the local landscape for their subject matter, particularly the rolling countryside along the Delaware River.
Johnson, who settled in the Bucks County town of Lumberville, enjoyed great success at the leading juried exhibitions of his day, winning awards and prizes for his work. With its finely detailed brushwork and pleasing use of color, Johnson's technique calls to mind that of Daniel Garber, with whom he studied while at the Pennsylvania Academy. When he stopped painting in about 1938 and became an antiques dealer, Johnson refused to allow the sale of any more of his works during his lifetime, and they remained unseen by the public for almost 50 years until being exhibited after his 1981 death.