Some railway paintings and their artists 2. Coronation Class Pacific 46252 City of Leicester in Crewe Works – Frank Johnson

This painting provides a convincing impression of the inside of the locomotive works in the 1960’s. It shows how labour intensive the maintenance of such engines was. The works were noisy, bustling, dirty and dangerous places. We had the pleasure of visiting them a number of times, with permits that senior pupils had arranged in advance for us, on organised trips with Wallasey Grammar School Railway Society.

Born in Leicester, Frank Johnson, 1917-1998, was a commercial and portrait artist who taught at Bradford Regional College of Art from 1952 up to his retirement in 1980. David Hockney was one of his students. Celebrating 175 years of its existence, Bradford College’s online website describes Frank Johnson’s portraits as tender, compassionate and sensitive. He specialised in pictures of people in their working environment, as shown on the BBC’s “Your Paintings” website that show-cased 17 such examples of his work.

During his lifetime, Frank exhibited his work at the Royal Academy, Bradford City Art Gallery, the Huddersfield Sports Centre Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art at Skopje, in the then Yugoslavia. Today, his paintings are in public collections at galleries in Bradford, Leeds and Glasgow. His work is said to have been influenced by Walter Sickert and the Euston Road School [1937-9], emphasising naturalism and realism. This style has also been described as being part of the “Kitchen Sink” art movement. 

Browsing through the GW Railwayana Auction catalogue prior to their 25 July 2015 sale, my attention was drawn to a group of six original paintings by Frank Johnson which were to be offered in successive lots. This was not then a name that I knew and I presumed that it was likely, therefore, that Frank was not known primarily as a railway artist, but someone who had dipped into the railway arena for a relatively short period and probably for a specific purpose.

I like these paintings. The larger than life facial features, the washed out, creased, blue overalls, the grease top and other flat hats and the general bustle, all remind me of the sheer number of employees that there were in those places. Crewe Works was teeming with men when our crocodile of fresh-faced youngsters in school uniform threaded its way through the various shops, as we frantically wrote down numbers as though our lives depended on it, at the same time trying to avoid falling into the pits between the rails or snagging our shorts, or worse, on protruding pieces of metal.  

There is certainly attention to detail in these pictures and the locomotives themselves are fairly convincingly replicated by someone who probably did not necessarily see himself as a “train man” in the same way that we perhaps like to think that we are, as lifelong devotees. Having said that, my own photograph of A2 Class No.60537 Batchelor’s Button on Carlisle Canal shed taken in August 1962, shows the smokebox door number plate as being below the handrail, not above it, as it is recorded in Frank’s painting of that locomotive. The mistaken labelling of Britannia Class No. 70022 Tornado as Venus [which was 70023] might be an indication that the artist was operating a bit outside of his comfort zone when it came to railways.

These six paintings were sold at a fine art auction in May 2013 and as one combined lot, for £600 [£750, including buyer’s premium]. According to an article in the Nottingham Evening News, dated 13 June 2013, the group had been secured by a provincial art gallery, the Fletchergate Art Gallery in the city. Information available on the internet indicated that at least three of them - and presumably therefore all six - had price tags there of £1,500 each during their time on sale at that location. Prior to the GWRA sale at Pershore, the gallery’s own website showed the images as having been sold but did not reveal for how much.

On Bradford College’s alumni website, one of Frank Johnson’s former pupils described him as “very inspirational” and the “biggest influence” on them all. They liked the fact that he was not just a teacher but a practising artist who was prepared to work on his own paintings in front of them. The implication was that some other art teachers had already “hung up their brushes” by that stage. 

In a brief exchange with a representative of the Fletchergate gallery, where Frank Johnson’s work had previously been exhibited, I was told that GWRA had received a lot of interest in the forthcoming sale of this tranche of paintings.

In fact, on the day, three of them went for £200, one for £250 and two failed to sell. What a damp squib they had turned out to be. I suddenly felt a bit sorry for Frank Johnson, or rather, I felt relieved that he is not around to have to face the ignominy of such widespread rejection - in this niche market, at least. There was very little interest from the railwayana fraternity in his work. On the day after the auction, the two unsold paintings were still available for purchase from GWRA at a reserve price of £300.