Marshall Johnson was born in Boston and attended the Lowell Institute but went to sea at age eighteen. When his ship caught fire off the coast of South America only twelve of the crew, including Johnson, were saved. He returned to Boston and for three years studied with marine painter William E. Norton. In the late 1880s Johnson traveled to Holland, France, and England, where his studies of marine art were to have a lasting influence on his work. Johnson established a studio on India Wharf in Boston and exhibited frequently at the Boston Art Club, the Copley, Society, Jordan Art Gallery, the National Academy of Design, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and the Art Institute of Chicago. At the time of his death in 1921 only two of his signed sketchbooks survived.

Biography courtesy of Roger King Gallery of Fine Art, www.antiquesandfineart.com/rking