Voices in the Night by Frank Tenney Johnson

Voices in the Night - Frank Tenney Johnson - Canvas Wall Art

Product Overview

Nothing softens a bedroom like a painted surface. Voices in the Night by Frank Tenney Johnson arrives as a hand painted oil painting on canvas, offering the fine art detail, soft gradients, and tactile finish that fine art oil painting shoppers look for.

Composition & Subject

Frank Tenney Johnson was first exposed to the painting of Western subjects by his studies with horse painter F.W. Heine and western artist George Lorenz, who "encouraged Johnson to record the disappearing frontier." (R. Saunders, The C.R. Smith Collection of Western American Art, Austin, Texas, 1988, p. 142) This encouragement, coupled with later studies at the Art Students League in New York, where he made acquaintance with Robert Henri, John Henry Twachtman and William Merritt Chase, gave his art a unique mood. He was born in Iowa but soon after moved west to Milwaukee. He gained commercial success and popularity after a lucrative illustration commission from Field and Stream brought him to Colorado, where he was "entranced by the desert community of the Southwest." (R. Stewart, The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier, Dallas, Texas, 1986, p. 175)

Johnson said of his Western subjects, "seeing these people in the moonlight or even in the magic light of the stars impressed me very deeply." (as quoted in The American West: Legendary Artists of the Frontier, p. 175) Observations like this led him to produce a large number of paintings of subjects under the purple-blue shadows of the Western night sky. It is for these accomplished nocturnal scenes which Johnson is best known, and which are recognized as his greatest technical achievements. Richard Saunders tells us "During the 1910s and 1920s such romantic 'nocturnes' won Johnson critical praise. In 1923 a painting of a rugged Mexican traveling with a laden burro by lamplight won a $1000 prize at the Salmagundi Club's annual exhibition in New York." (The C.R. Smith Collection of Western American Art, p. 140)

A night scene like those that gained him renown, Voices in the Night depicts a moonlit scene of three Native Americans on horseback, with a background of weather-beaten buttes and a dark yet luminous blue-green wedge of sky. His ability to so skillfully render night scenes certainly reminds the viewer of Frederic Remington's great nocturnes. Indeed, "in technical terms, he is perhaps closer in spirit to the later Remington style than any other Western painter." (P.H. Hassrick, History of Western American Art, New York, 1987, p. 134)

As bedroom wall art, the piece pairs naturally with other elegant wall art and with warm neutrals, timber, and soft natural light.

Materials & Craftsmanship

Each canvas is painted entirely by hand with professional oil paints on artist-grade cotton canvas. No printing, giclée, or digital imaging is used at any stage, so the surface keeps the slight relief and color variation of real brushwork.

What Is Included

• 100% hand-painted oil painting on artist-grade canvas — never a print or digital reproduction.
• Comes with a 2-inch unpainted margin on every side, ready for stretcher bars or a frame.
• We dispatch worldwide ourselves, so there are no middlemen in the chain.
• Available canvas sizes for this hand painted oil painting: 20 X 24 in, 24 X 36 in, 30 X 40 in, 36 X 48 in, 48 X 72 in.
• Custom canvas dimensions are welcome for this fine art oil painting.
• Affordable delivery options via DHL, UPS, FedEx, USPS and more.
• No-cost gallery stretching on wood bars, plus optional made-to-order framing.
• Before dispatch we email a digital proof so you can approve the finished canvas.

Where to Hang It

This fine art oil painting wall decor is equally at home in a residence, a boutique hotel, or a professional office. Its elegant character makes it a safe, distinctive gift for anyone furnishing a bedroom.

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