Ralph Johonnot

Ralph Helm Johonnot (1880–1940)[1] was an American artist, designer, and arts educator, he is known for his educational series on color and interior decoration. He created paintings and prints, within the Arts and Crafts movement of still life and landscapes, as well as creating decorative work with his wife Salome Lavinia Johonnot (née Hopper, 1883–1962).[2] Together with Salome, they traveled to give educational lectures on the arts and created two private art schools, the Ralph Johonnot Studio in Richmond, California and Johonnot Summer School of Design and Hand Work in Pacific Grove, California. He was active in the arts throughout the state of California from approximately 1912–1940.

Ralph Johonnot
Born(1880-07-28)July 28, 1880
Syracuse, New York, U.S.
DiedNovember 19, 1940(1940-11-19) (aged 60)
Los Gatos, California, U.S.
Alma materPratt Institute
Years active1912–1940

Biography

Johonnot was born 28 July 1880 in Syracuse, New York to Mary Helm and Charles Johonnot.[3][4] He was the middle child with two siblings, an older brother Earnest and a younger brother Carl.[3][4] Johonnot attended Pratt Institute, he was a pupil of Arthur Wesley Dow.[3][5] In 1906–1907, Ralph and his brother Carl traveled to England and France to study painting.[4]

From 1909 until 1912, Johonnot taught classes in applied arts and decorative arts at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and was eventually promoted to the head of the Design Department.[1][3][6]

By 1913, Johonnot and his wife moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and the same year he began lecturing at San Francisco Art Association (SFAA).[7] Some of Johonnot's early students were artist Rudolph Schaeffer and William S. Rice.[4][8] Other students of Johonnot's included Nell Choate Jones,[9][10] Lydia Bush-Brown Head,[11] Daisy Marguerite Hughes,[11] Maude Kerns,[12] Frank Ingerson,[13] Marjorie Hodges Doolittle,[3] Grif Teller,[14] and many others. In the summers between 1914 and 1916 were spent hosting and teaching at Johonnot Summer School of Design and Hand Work in Pacific Grove, California.[4] The family moved often between 1916 until 1927, between the cities of Pacific Grove and Carmel Highlands in Monterey County, and Pasadena in Southern California and various other places where they hosted lectures and classes on design but they maintained a residency in Pacific Grove while traveling.[4] By the 1920s, Johonnot's traveling lectures started to be more focused on the study of color, as well as interior decoration of the home.[15]

Johonnot died on 19 November 1940 in Los Gatos, California.[3]

Personal life

Johonnot was married in 1910 in Pennsylvania to artist and designer Salome Lavinia Johonnot (née Hopper, 1883–1962).[2] Together the couple would create decorative arts work together, occasionally working in interior design, mural design and painting, and fashion design.[5][16] Salome had studied stitchery in England with May Morris, the daughter of William Morris.[5] Together they had one child, Ralph Jr.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

Select group exhibitions
  • 1915 – The Ralph Johonnot Studio, Education Exhibits at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition (PPIE), San Francisco, California[17]
  • 1915 – Applied Arts by Southern California Craftsmen Exhibition (exhibited together with wife Salome), Panama-California Exposition, San Diego, California[4]
  • 1916 – Arts and Crafts Society’s First Annual Salon, Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California[4]
  • 1916 – National Society of Craftsmen (exhibited together with wife Salome), New York City, New York[4]
  • 1917 – Chicago Ceramics Art Association, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois[18]
  • 1922 – Artists' Cooperative Galleries, J.M. Gidding & Company Building, 726 Fifth Avenue, New York City, New York[19]
  • 1929 – Second Annual Decorative Arts Exhibition, Women’s Club of San Francisco, San Francisco, California[4]
  • 1930 – Elder's (Paul Elder Gallery), San Francisco, California[20]
  • 1930 – Palo Alto Art Club (now the Pacific Art League), Palo Alto Library, Palo Alto, California[4]
  • 1932 – (exhibition with wife Salome, Gene Kloss), Delphian Society, San Mateo Library, San Mateo, California[4]

References
  1. Trapp, Kenneth R.; Bowman, Leslie Greene (1993). The Arts and Crafts Movement in California: Living the Good Life. Oakland Museum. p. 2077. ISBN 9781558593930.
  2. "Weddings, Johonnot-Hopper". The Baltimore Sun. 25 August 1910. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  3. Hughs, Edan Milton (1989). Artists in California 1786-1940. pp. 133, 291. ISBN 978-0961611217.
  4. Edwards, Robert W. (2012). "Jennie V. Cannon: The Untold History of the Carmel and Berkeley Art Colonies" (PDF). Traditional Fine Arts Organization. Oakland, California: East Bay Heritage Project. ISBN 9781467545679. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  5. Holden, Marion (8 April 1923). "Arts, Crafts Offer Course, Ralph and Salome Johonnot Exponents of Creative Design, Exhibition". Newspapers.com. Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  6. "Pratt Institute, School of Library Science to Offer a Graduate Course". The New York Times. September 29, 1912. p. 18. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  7. Annual Report of the President of the University on Behalf of the Regents. University of California Press. 1913. pp. 48–49.
  8. Mitchell, Margaretta K. (1985). "The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design, Art in San Francisco Since 1915". www.archive.org (oral history transcript). The Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design. p. 130. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  9. Kelly, James C. (2000). The South on Paper: Line, Color and Light. University of South Carolina Press. p. 46. ISBN 9780963283634.
  10. Blackman, Lynne (2018). Central to Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 9781611179552.
  11. Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 9781135638894.
  12. Green, Nancy E. (1999). Arthur Wesley Dow, 1857-1922: His Art and His Influence. Spanierman Gallery. p. 66. ISBN 9780945936244.
  13. Keramic Studio - Volume 16. Keramic Studio Publishing Company. 1914. p. 197.
  14. Vermont Life, Volumes 9-10. Vermont: Vermont Agency of Development and Community Affairs. 1954. p. 32.
  15. Havner, Ada (1925). "Every Day Art". Iowa State University (ISU). The Iowa Homemaker (Vol. 5) No. 1, Article 3. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  16. "Wide Variety in Group of Current Exhibitions". The New York Times. April 30, 1916. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  17. "Education Exhibits at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition" (PDF). 1916. p. 97. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  18. "Chicago Ceramics Art Association, Art Institution of Chicago". Google Books. American Art Annual (Volume 13), MacMillan Company. 1917. p. 96. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  19. "Ralph H Johonnot Exhibit Artists' Co-operative Galleries". Newspapers.com. The New York Times. 3 Dec 1922. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
  20. "Ralph & Salome Johonnot exhibition". Newspapers.com. Oakland Tribune. 27 Apr 1930. Retrieved 2019-08-05.
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