[Painting Class in a School Room]
Born in West Virginia, Johnston studied drawing and painting at the Académie Julien in Paris before returning to America to take up photography. She excelled in architectural documentation, portraiture, and especially school scenes. This photograph, commissioned by the school system of Washington, D.C. school system, reveals her exceptional talent for orchestrating a classroom to articulate the values of measure, order, and incipient grace that a classical artist or schoolmarm might impose. The picture is blue because it was printed using a variation of the blueprint process that architects employed until recently to duplicate their line drawings.
Artwork Details
- Title: [Painting Class in a School Room]
- Artist: Frances Benjamin Johnston (American, 1864–1952)
- Date: 1899
- Medium: Cyanotype from glass negative
- Dimensions: 18.4 x 23.5 cm. (7 1/4 x 9 1/4 in.)
- Classification: Photographs
- Credit Line: Purchase, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gift, through Joyce and Robert Menschel, 1988
- Object Number: 1988.1040
- Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
Research Resources
The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.