The Young Shepherdess

Henry James Johnstone, RBA (1835 – 1907)

Watercolour. Signed.

9¾” x 6¾” (24.8 cm x 17.2 cm)

A painter of figures, genre scenes and landscapes, Johnstone initially studied art privately and then at the Birmingham School of Design. In 1853 he sailed to Australia, where he spent three years prospecting in the goldfields of Victoria. Before leaving England, Johnstone had worked in his father’s photography firm in Birmingham and he now established a photographic studio of his own in Melbourne. Painting was his first love, however, so he began landscape painting classes. In 1872 he started exhibiting his work, principally landscapes, with the recently founded Victorian Academy of Art and, by 1874, he was listed in the Melbourne Directory solely as a professional artist. In 1880, after a period in America, Johnstone returned to England, living in Buckinghamshire, Sussex and London. He exhibited at the principal galleries, including The Royal Academy and The Royal Society of British Artists, of which he became a member in 1886. Johnstone concentrated now on figure studies and the quality of his work was underlined with superb technique and a fine observation of detail.