Isabelle Johnson

Isabelle Johnson, (b. 1901 – d. 1992) was a modernist painter and noted as one of the first modernist painters in Montana.

She studied painting and sculpture at Columbia University and was selected in 1946 by Henry Varnum to participate in the first class of his experimental Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Skowhegan, Maine. Afterward she moved back to her home in Stillwater County Montana, where she began working as one of the first modernist artists in the state. Inspired by the French Post-Impressionists, and how they saw color. She spent most of her life painting the Stillwater River Valley and the Absaroka-Beartooth Mountains.

Johnson taught at Montana State University Billings, and served as department head from 1954 to 1961.

The Yellowstone Art Museum, Billings, Montana, owns 827 Johnson-related works in its permanent collection, the majority of which were donated by Johnson.