A Donor's Intent vs. Reality: John G. Johnson, His Collection, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art

John Graver Johnson (1841-1917), a leading Philadelphia lawyer, amassed one of the largest and most varied picture collections of America’s Gilded Age. He kept it at his townhouse, which did not have a formal gallery: Johnson’s paintings were scattered all over its interiors. During his life, the residence was not open to the public, but Johnson received many visitors. Despite its limited accessibility, the collection gained an excellent reputation.

In his will of 1912, Johnson bequeathed his collection—nearly 1,300 paintings plus about 200 other works of art—to the City of Philadelphia. Three years later, he bought the residence adjacent to his own for the purpose of displaying his art. In a codicil to his will, Johnson asked that his collection be maintained in its new location. About this time, he reportedly declared that he would not put his art “in any old temple with a row of columns in front of it.”

After Johnson’s death, in 1917, his collection remained closed for six years: It was only in 1923 that the City opened the Johnson house museum to the public. After the house was declared unsafe in 1933, the John G. Johnson Collection was transferred to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where it was displayed in a separate suite of galleries. More than sixty years later, in 1995, Johnson’s paintings were integrated with the PMA’s own permanent holdings. This paper explores Johnson’s intentions for his collection, and its subsequent history at the PMA, under whose stewardship it now remains.