Portrait of Ellen H. E. Johnson
Title/Subject: Ellen H. E. Johnson (American, 1910-1992)
Artist: Nils Harald Zetterberg (Swedish, 1910-1986)
Date: ca. 1930
Type: painting
Medium: gouache (?)
Dimensions: 16" h x 13" w
Collection: Ellen H. E. Johnson Papers (RG 30/243)
The portrait, likely in gouache, of Ellen Hulda Elizabeth Johnson as a young woman was painted by Swedish artist Nils Zetterberg, exactly her age. Her parents immigrated to America from Sweden before she was born. Zetterberg was a painter, illustrator, and head teacher of mural painting at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm. In 1930, the rough date for Johnson's portrait, he was studying at the Stockholm Academy of the Arts. He and two other artists created public art for the Rinkeby Metro Station, completed in 1985. His work is represented in several art museums in Sweden.Ellen Johnson attended Oberlin College and earned a B.A. (1933) and M.A. (1935), both in Art History. She was the college's art librarian from 1939 to 1948. In 1940 she organized the Art Rental Collection within the Allen Memorial Art Museum, still popular with students today for decorating their rooms. She joined the Fine Arts Department faculty in 1948. Johnson became a leading specialist in American and European contemporary art, as well as an art critic and author. She was in close contact with many of the leading artists of the mid-to late twentieth century.
The 1977 addition to the Allen Memorial Art Museum, designed by the architectural firm of Venturi and Rauch, primarily houses a contemporary art gallery dedicated in honor of Ellen Johnson. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oberlin College in 1981.
In 1968 Johnson purchased a Usonian house in Oberlin designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, commissioned by the Weltzheimer family, 1947-49. Johnson bequeathed it to Oberlin College, and following her death in 1992 it has been overseen by the Allen Memorial Art Museum and the Art Department. The executor of her estate gave the portrait of Johnson, along with a collection of her personal papers and photographs (8.8 linear feet), to the Oberlin College Archives. The larger portion of her papers (60.3 linear feet) reside at the Archives of American Art.
Sources
Ellen H. E. Johnson Papers (RG 30/243), Oberlin College Archives.
Ellen Hulda Johnson papers, Archives of American Art (accessed 11/20/2020).
Nils Zetterberg, Wikipedia entry in Swedish translated to English (accessed 9/3/2020).
Weltzheimer/Johnson House, Oberlin College (accessed 11/20/2020).
Related Collections
Archives Museum Collection (digital)
Department of Art Records (RG 9/28)
Allen Memorial Art Museum Records (RG 9/3)