The Story of Two Paintings: Unveiling the Mystery of local artist Anna Johnson's "Woman with Sticks"

The Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery recently received an original painting by local artist Anna C. Johnson titled "Woman Hauling Sticks." This donation, from the Johnson Trust with Leslie Carter as the previous owner, is notable not only for its artistic merit but also for its role in concluding a bigger story featuring a slightly different painting of the same name.

For years, a version of "Woman Hauling Sticks" was a part of the Johnson Heritage Post's collection, believed to be an original. However, in early 2021, staff discovered that the painting was, in fact, a copy, which led to questions such as, how did a copy come to be in the collection, and what happened to the original?

The puzzle was solved with the rediscovery of a letter from an old file. The letter explained that the original painting had been severely damaged in a house fire. To ensure that Anna Johnson’s work was still represented in the Gallery, a family close to the Johnsons donated a copy of the painting to the Historical Society. Unfortunately, this crucial piece of information explaining the origin of the copy was eventually lost, leading to the assumption that it was an original.

This new donation is an original painting by Anna Johnson, a very similar version to the one previously in the collection (and the original). “This practice of creating multiple, near-identical versions of a single subject was common for Johnson,” said JHP Gallery Manager Victoria Lewandowski. A well-known example of this is her numerous "Gunflint Pines" paintings, many of which are in the Johnson Heritage Post's collection and various private collections. 

To celebrate the generous donation of this historic piece of art and conclusion to the story, the Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery is excited to announce an opening reception for The Anna Johnson Collection Rotation on Friday, August 29, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at JHP. 

The Johnson Heritage Post is open Wednesday – Saturday: 10 AM-4 PM, and Sunday: 1-4 pm. On August 15, the Art Gallery will host an opening reception from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. for its newest Gallery Exhibit, "A Walk in the Woods," featuring work from The Glass Group. The exhibit will run through September 7. Additionally, artwork from Paula Sundet Wolf, our Local Artist of the Month, will be on display until the end of the month. 

About Anna Johnson and JHP

Anna Carolina Johnson (1881–1944) was born in Sweden, before immigrating to Michigan at age 10. Johnson would later receive formal training at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Her marriage to Charles J. Johnson in 1907 brought her to Grand Marais, where she became a respected art teacher and a local entrepreneur. In addition to her paintings, which frequently depicted scenes of the North Shore and the Gunflint Wagon Road, she created and sold ceramics, etchings, and stained glass from a gift shop in the original Johnson Trading Post.

After the original trading post was destroyed by fire in 1926, a temporary building housed her popular gift shop for six decades. Her son, Lloyd K. Johnson, donated the property to the Historical Society in 1989. His generosity and desire to honor his mother’s contributions to the community led to the construction of the present building, a near-replica of the original post, which now serves as the Johnson Heritage Post Art Gallery.

The west wing of the gallery is dedicated to Anna Johnson’s permanent exhibit. The gallery, in addition to housing her work, aims to promote public awareness of the cultural heritage of the arts in Cook County and the North Shore through exhibitions of local artists, both past and present.