J. Seward Johnson, Jr.
Seward Johnson (born 1930), also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr., is an American sculptor known for his trompe l'oeil bronze painted sculptures.Examples of his work include:
- The Awakening (1980), perhaps his largest work, a 70-foot five-part sculpture located at Haines Point in Washington, DC,
- Hitchhiker (1983), a statue along the side of a road leading away from the campus of Hofstra University,
- Allow Me (1984), a statue of man holding an umbrella, located in Pioneer Courthouse Square in Portland, Oregon, and
- Déjeuner Déjá Vu (1994), located at Grounds for Sculpture in Hamilton, New Jersey, a three-dimensional recreation of Edouard Manet's painting, Déjeuner Sur l'Herbe.
He was also one of the disinheritedheirs to the Johnson & Johnson Corporation fortune, notorious for their very public contesting of their father's will, which left nearly all of his half-billion-dollar fortune to his wife of twelve years, a former servant. The disbute was written about in Undue Influence: The Epic Battle for the Johnson & Johnson Fortune (1993, ISBN 0688064256).
Johnson's grandson Jamie produced and directed a documentary, Born Rich (2003), which premiered at Sundance Film Festival and aired on HBO to generally favorable reviews.
