Seward Johnson, 1930

J. Seward Johnson, Jr. is an american artist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues, and a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I, co-founder of Johnson and Johnson. He is best known for his life-size bronze statues, which actually are castings of living people of all ages depicting them engaged in day-to-day activities.

A large staff of technicians perform the fabrication.
Johnson was born in New Jersey.

His father was John Seward Johnson I, and his mother was Ruth Dill, the sister of actress Diana Dill, therefore making him a first cousin of actor Michael Douglas. Johnson grew up with five siblings: Mary Lea Johnson Richards, Elaine Johnson, Diana Melville Johnson, Jennifer Underwood Johnson, and James Loring "Jimmy" Johnson.

His parents divorced around 1937, and his father remarried two years later, producing his only brother Jimmy Johnson, making him an uncle to film director Jamie Johnson. Johnson attended Forman School for dyslexics and University of Maine, where he majored in poultry husbandry, but did not graduate. Johnson also served four years in the Navy during the Korean War.

The Awakening 1980, is a 21 m statue of a giant embedded in the earth, struggling to free himself, located at National Harbor in Prince George's County, Maryland, USA, just outside the District of Columbia.

The statue consists of five separate aluminum pieces buried in the ground, giving the impression of a distressed giant attempting to free himself from the ground.

The left hand and right foot barely protrude, while the bent left leg and knee jut into the air. The 5.2 m high right arm and hand reach farther out of the ground. The bearded face, with the mouth in mid-scream, struggles to emerge from the earth.

The Awakening was originally installed at Hains Point, Washington, D.C. in 1980 for the International Sculpture Conference Exhibition. Although its National Park Service temporary permit had long expired, the statue remained for 27 years at the southern end of Hains Point, across the Potomac River from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The statue was positioned in a large, flat, open field.

In 2007, the National Park Service announced that the sculpture would be moved to the National Harbor, after the artist sold the statue for $750,000.

The sculpture was excavated and removed from Hains Point on February 20, 2008, and then was installed at National Harbor in a configuration to correct scale issues that existed in the original sculpture.

On October 10, 2009, a second casting of The Awakening was unveiled in Chesterfield, Missouri.

The second sculpture is also 21 m long and 5.2 m tall at its highest point.

The Awakening installed at Washington

The Awakening installed at Rome

Forever Marilyn 2011, a 7.9 m, 17-ton representation of Marilyn Monroe standing over a gusty subway grate in her appearance in The Seven Year Itch. As of 2011, the sculpture is located at Pioneer Plaza in Chicago, where it has attracted many visitors and some degree of controversy.

Forever Marilyn 2011

Trompe l'oeil is an art technique involving extremely realistic imagery in order to create the optical illusion that the depicted objects appear in three dimensions.
An example of trompe l'oeil is Escaping Criticism 1874, by Pere Borrell del Caso (1835-1910).