Burt William Johnson (April 25, 1890 – March 27, 1927)Moore, Nancy Dustin Wall. Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California Before 1930. Los Angeles: Privately printed, 1975, p.130 was an American sculptor.

Biography Johnson was born in Flint, Ohio. At the age of 13, he went to live for a year in Cornish, New Hampshire,Berryman, Florence Seville. "An American sculptor and his achievement". Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, Volume LXII Number 2, November 1928, pp.661-667 where his older sister Annetta Johnson Saint-Gaudens, wife of sculptor Louis Saint-Gaudens, was studying with Louis' brother, master sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California 1786-1940. San Francisco: Hughes Publishing Company, 1986 Johnson moved to Claremont, California in 1907 to study at Pomona College, and then to New York City in 1909 to study at the Art Students League of New York.Arts and Decoration. Volume 6 Number 1, November 1915, p.6 He worked with fellow sculptors James Earle Fraser, Robert I. Aitken and George Bridgman, as well as his brother-in-law, Louis St. Gaudens.Fielding, Mantle. Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, Enlarged Edition. Greens Farms CT: Modern Books and Crafts, 1926/1974, p.189 Back in California after Louis St. Gaudens' death in 1913, he moved into the studio that his brother-in-law had created during a visit to Claremont.

Johnson remained active in both California and New York, and is well known for his statues honoring American soldiers of World War I, known as doughboys. Examples of these doughboy statues can be found in DeWitt Clinton ParkClinton War Memorial (Doughboy), De Witt Clinton Park, inaugurated 1930 and Doughboy ParkThe Woodside Doughboy, Doughboy Park, Woodside, New York, inaugurated 1923 in New York City, the latter being named the best war memorial of its kind by the American Federation of Artists in 1928. Garfield Park in Pomona, California has another World War I tribute created by Johnson, dedicated in 1923, with an allegorical representation of Pomona, the Goddess of Fruit, beside a young man.Los Angeles Times, May 14, 1923, p.7 (photograph) The Children's Tribute to the World War Heroes (1919) in Robert Keller Park in Huntington Park, California, depicts a barefoot girl holding the uniform caps of a sailor and a doughboy to her heart. (photographs); based on a public lecture given by Dr. Priscilla Schwarz, lecturer in art history, Oklahoma State University, May 28, 2016, Pomona, California.

Among his earlier works is The Spirit of Spanish Music, a fountain with the bronze figure of a boy playing a flute, located in Lebus Court of the Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music at Pomona College. arthistory.pomona.edu www.pomona.edu/ His allegorical figures of Architecture and Sculpture decorate the exterior of the 1927 Fine Arts Building (Los Angeles), with additional reliefs near the top of the building's façade. The inside lobby has a fountain with sculptures of children, modeled by his daughter, Cynthia (age 3) and his son Harvey (age 5). publicartina.com That son, Harvey W. Johnson (1921–2005), was a prominent Western artist and became president of the Cowboy Artists of America.CowboyArtistsofAmerica Harvey Johnson obituaryAbout the Artist harveywjohnson.com official site In addition, Johnson's grandsons Casey Schwarz and Scott Lee Johnson continue the family involvement in sculpture. There is also a granddaughter, Darcy Lynn a painter, and a great granddaughter, Tamsin Parker, a painter and animator.

In 1918, Johnson was a leading candidate to execute a memorial to community leader and publisher of the Los Angeles Times, Gen. Harrison Gray Otis,. who had died the year before. The Los Angeles Evening Herald called him a "100 per cent American sculptor", and pictured him "putting the finishing touches" on his model for the memorial in a story announcing that the project would be delayed until after the conclusion of the World War, since the amount of bronze needed to complete the work "would be sufficient to construct two cannon"."Delay statue of general to help win present war", Los Angeles Evening Herald, Number 149, April 24, 1918 The project ultimately was awarded to Russian sculptor Prince Paul TroubetzkoyWood, Helen B. "Los Angeles", American Art News, Volume XVII Number 21, March 1, 1919, p.3

For his final project, the façade and lobby sculptures of the Los Angeles Fine Arts Building, Johnson's sister, Annetta Johnson Saint-Gaudens, and her son Paul St Gaudens, both sculptors themselves, provided assistance,Cuba, Stan. The Denver Artists Guild: Its Founding Members; An Illustrated History. Denver: History Colorado, 2015 as did Santa Monica, California sculptor Merrell Gage. In his final years, feeling he wanted to work on something creative and not concentrate just on sculpture, Johnson wrote a novel about an artist's life in Greenwich Village, New York City.Los Angeles Times, March 29, 1927, p.A4 (Burt Johnson obituary)

Burt Johnson died in Claremont, California, on March 27, 1927, at the age of 36. He is buried next to his wife Ottilie M. Johnson (1891–1980) in Oak Park Cemetery, Claremont, California, USA.

Selected works Location known The Spirit of Spanish Music (1916) Albert John Cook memorial tablet (1917) Greek Theater commemorative tablet (dedicated 1917) Children's Tribute to the World War Heroes (1919) Elisha Newton Dimick Memorial (1921) World War Memorial Panel Portrait bust (c.1921) of Dr Henry Kingman (1864–1921), early pastor Theodore Edwin Norton Memorial Fountain and Tablet (1922) Anna I. Young Memorial Panel (1923) Pomona World War I Memorial (photographs) (Goddess of Fruit) (1923) Doughboy Monument (1923) The Returned Soldier (1923) Lobby and façade sculptures (1926) Flanders Field Doughboy (1927, dedicated 1930)

Location unknown The Little Director (1916) Hope Braithwaite Smith memorial tablet (1917) Christ Panel (April 1917) Piping Faun, sculpture in front of the organ screen, right side of the proscenium, in Grauman's "Million Dollar" Theatre (1918) Los Angeles, California, US The Answering Note Little Sculptor Boy, at one time in Lobby of the Fine Arts Building, Los Angeles, California (c.1927)

Gallery

External links

Claremont Colleges Digital Archive, historical images Burt W. Johnson, 1890-1927 (Folder), Smithsonian Institution, CollectionsSearchCenter

References