FRANCIS (FRANZ) JOHNSTON (1888-1949)

Francis Hans Johnston, known as Franz or Frank, apprenticed as a jewelry designer with Ryrie Bros. of Toronto in 1904. He studied during the evenings at the Central Technical School and the Ontario College of Art (OCA, now OCAD U) under William Cruikshank, Gustav Hahn and George A. Reid, while working as a commercial artist with Brigdens.

Like many of his contemporaries, he began working as a commercial artist before turning his attention to painting the Canadian landscape. While working at a commercial art firm in Toronto, he met future Group of Seven members J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, and Franklin Carmichael and was briefly a member of the Group.¹

Johnston had much in common with the artists of the Group of Seven. Like them, he devoted his spare time before the First World War to landscape painting, through sketching trips around Toronto and farther north to Bon Echo near Algonquin Park and to Hearst, north of Lake Superior – a source of inspiration for him. An active participant in the Group’s activities, Johnston joined every  Algoma sketching tripexcept the last. 

He taught at the Ontario College of Art during the 1920s and later became principal. In 1927, he changed his name to Franz Johnston.

Learn more about Franz Johnston

¹ National Gallery of Canada

² The Group of Seven, Frank (Franz) Johnston

Image credit: Frank Johnston (1888–1949), Patterned Hillside, c. 1918, oil on board, 26.7 x 33.6 cm, Gift of the Founders, Robert and Signe McMichael, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1977.37.8