2015 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction / Lot 109108 / 290  •  View Catalog  •   • 

109
Frank Tenney Johnson (1874 – 1939)
While Trail-Weary Cattle are Sleeping (1936)
oil on canvas
30 × 40 inches
signed and dated lower left

VERSO
Signed, titled, and dated
“Property of Mrs. Flora E. White”

Fred Hogue, the Chief Editorial writer the Los Angeles Times, stated in the March 24, 1928 issue, “Russell knew the riders of the Northwest, but Russell is dead. Remington knew the cowboy and his mount and the whole story of the Old West; but Remington is dead. When Johnson is gone, the last of this triology of the trail and the range will have passed. As a painter of nocturnes, Frank Tenney Johnson is the peer of any artist that ever came out of the West. Russell and Remington could paint the sunlight, but when the twilight shadows began to fall they cleansed their brushes, assembled their canvases and withdrew.… Perhaps Frank Tenney Johnson is a poet who sings in color. There is a harmony in his canvases that escapes our five senses.… His best is equal to the best in any company. He possesses the secret of color, of light and shade, of technique and composition. Perhaps, when he is dead, other lovers of the beautiful will write of him and his art what I have here written.”

PROVENANCE
Biltmore Salon, Los Angeles, CA
Mr. and Mrs. Roy B. White, Sr., New York, NY, 1937
Present owners, by descent

LITERATURE
Harold McCracken, The Frank Tenney Johnson Book (Garden City, NJ: Double & Company, Inc., 1974), page 175, illustrated

109

Frank Tenney Johnson

1874 – 1939

While Trail-Weary Cattle are Sleeping (1936)
oil on canvas
30 × 40 inches
signed and dated lower left
Sold at Auction: $409,500
Condition ReportSurface condition good. Inpainting around perimeter at edge of frame and five small spots of inpainting on the horse’s head. Several hairline cracks in sky and mountains. Painting has been lined.

Important Notice: Statements of condition are provided as a service to potential bidders; such statements are educated opinions and should not be regarded as facts. The Coeur d’Alene Art Auction has no responsibility for any errors or omissions.