Edward Killingworth Johnson

Edward Killingworth Johnson
Edward Killingworth Johnson
Born	30 May 1825; London
Died	7 April 1896 (aged 70); Halstead, Essex

Edward Killingworth Johnson RWS (1825 – 1896) was a British wood-engraver, illustrator, and watercolour painter. He is known for creating the first illustrations of Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She.^[1]

Biography

Johnson was born in Bow, London on 30 May 1825 to an Irish merchant, Richard Johnson, and his wife Mary Meadows. He was trained as an apprentice to the wood-engraver John Orrin Smith from 1839, and then to Smith's business partner William James Linton. He then worked as a wood engraver for several years. He studied drawing at the Langham Life School, and started painting professionally c. 1863. In the 1860s he contributed regularly to the illustrated periodicals The Illustrated London News and from 1869 The Graphic. He became a member of the Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1876; he exhibited his works there, at the Royal Academy, the American Society of Painters in Water Color, the Philadelphia Exhibition and the Paris Universal Exhibition.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Johnson married Hannah Reynolds in November 1871; they moved out of London to his family home in Baker's Farm, Essex, and had three children. His uncles were the illustrator and watercolourist John Masey Wright and the marine painter James Meadows. He died in Halstead, Essex, on 7 April 1896, and was buried in Sible Hedingham.^[2]^[4]

Works

Johnson prepared the first illustrations of Rider Haggard's 1887 novel She; these remain among his best-known works.^[2]

Many of Johnson's works are listed in the auction catalogue prepared after his death.^[5]

The Accordion Lesson, Watercolour and bodycolour, 1869
Feeding a pony in a Surrey garden. Watercolour, 1879
The sacred fire in Rider Haggard's She, illustration, 1887

References

^ Cooke, Simon (2024). "Edward Killingworth Johnson's Illustrations for Rider Haggard's She in The Graphic." The Book Collector 73 (Spring): 55-64.
^ ^a ^b ^c "E. K. Johnson". Visual Haggard. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^ Clement, Clara Erskine; Hutton, Laurence (1879). "Artists of the Nineteenth Century: Their Works & Biographical Sketches". Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Edward Killingworth Johnson RWS (1825-1896)". Chris Beetles Gallery. Archived from the original on 19 September 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2021.
^ Catalogue of the remaining works and artistic accessories of that eminent water-colour painter Edward Killingworth Johnson, deceased ... : and drawings, the property of a gentleman, deceased and a few old drawings, from different sources. London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1897.