Charlotte Johnson Wahl Explained

Charlotte Maria Offlow Johnson Wahl
Birth Name:Charlotte Offlow Fawcett
Birth Date:1942 5, df=y
Birth Place:Oxford, England
Death Place:London, England
Father:Sir James Fawcett
Mother:Frances Lowe
Alma Mater:Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Charlotte Johnson Wahl (née Fawcett; 29 May 1942[1] – 13 September 2021)[2] [3] was a British artist.[4] She was the mother of politician Boris Johnson, as well as the journalist Rachel Johnson and the politician Jo Johnson.

Early life and education

Johnson Wahl was born Charlotte Maria Offlow Fawcett in Oxford on 29 May 1942.[1] [2] Her father was English barrister Sir James Fawcett and her mother was Frances Beatrice Fawcett (née Lowe).[5] Frances was the daughter of Lithuanian-American Jewish palaeographer Elias Avery Lowe and American translator and writer Helen Tracy Lowe-Porter, along with Frances's four siblings (including journalist and author Edmund Fawcett).[6] James was the son of English clergyman Joseph Fawcett and Edith Fawcett (nee Scattergood).[7]

In 1961, Johnson Wahl began studying English at Lady Margaret Hall, a college of Oxford University. She took her finals in 1965, the first year the college granted permission for married undergraduates to sit them. She obtained a second-class honours degree.[8] [9]

Paintings

Johnson Wahl was a professional portrait painter for Crispin Tickell, Joanna Lumley, Jilly Cooper, Simon Jenkins, and others. She painted children with their toys and dogs. Additionally, she painted landscapes and still lifes. Jonathan Jones of The Guardian described her paintings as influenced by Vorticism.[10]

Johnson Wahl held exhibitions: at the Maudsley Hospital, London, in 1974; in Brussels in 1970s; and at the Gavin Graham Gallery in London in 2004. A retrospective exhibition of her work was displayed at Mall Galleries, London, in 2015.[11] The documentary Painting the Johnsons for Sky Arts follows her career.

In 1997, Johnson Wahl painted for a fellowship in Bogliasco, Italy. Her paintings sold for £1,000 to £5,000.[12] Two of Wahl's paintings are in the collection of the Bethlem Museum of the Mind; another two are in the collections of Oxford University colleges.[13]

Personal life

She met Stanley Johnson at an All Souls lunch hosted by her father to celebrate Johnson's Newdigate Prize for poetry. They married in 1963 and lived in England, the United States and Brussels. In 1974, Charlotte Johnson Wahl was treated in Belgium for phobias, obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety around her children, which she said her husband was unsympathetic to. In 1979, the couple divorced. Their four children are: former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, life peer Jo Johnson, journalist Rachel Johnson, and PwC Partner Leo Johnson.

In 2020, Charlotte Johnson Wahl told the biographer Tom Bower that Stanley Johnson hit her "many times, over many years". Charlotte Johnson Wahl said that the abuse originated from his jealousy when she saw her friends. She stated that Johnson broke her nose, which family friends of his corroborated. On one occasion, he abandoned her without a car.[14] [15] [16] [17]

In 1988, Johnson Wahl married Nicholas Wahl, an American academic who studied French politics. They had met at a dinner party of Tickell in Brussels. They lived together in Washington Square, New York. Wahl died of cancer in 1996.

Johnson Wahl was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease at the age of 40.[9] On 13 September 2021, Johnson Wahl died at St Mary's Hospital in London, at the age of 79.[18] [19]

Political views

In 2015, the Evening Standard referred to Johnson Wahl as "left-wing", with her daughter Rachel stating that her father Stanley "tends to marry socialists". Johnson Wahl said in 2015 that she never voted for the Conservative Party and supported Jeremy Corbyn's leadership of the Labour Party.[20] Rachel commented that her mother was "the only red in the village when we lived on Exmoor".[21] In October 2019, during Boris Johnson's speech to the Conservative Party conference, he said that his mother voted for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the 2016 referendum.[22]

Notes and References

  1. News: Charlotte Johnson Wahl, painter with an original vision who was the 'genius' of the Johnson family and mother of the PM – obituary . The Daily Telegraph . 14 September 2021 . 14 September 2021 . subscription.
  2. Web site: Charlotte Maria Offlow JOHNSON WAHL . Personal Appointments . Companies House.
  3. News: Furness . Hannah . Boris Johnson's mother dies aged 79 . The Telegraph . 13 September 2021 . 13 September 2021.
  4. News: Charlotte Johnson-Wahl profile . . 15 May 2008 . 15.
  5. Web site: Index entry. 18 January 2018. FreeBMD. ONS.
  6. Web site: Interview: Boris Johnson - my Jewish credentials . Peled . Daniella . en . dead . www.website.thejc.com . 19 August 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150519065620/http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=55194&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=elias%20avery&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0 . 19 May 2015.
  7. Book: Andrews . Deborah . Annual Obituary, 1991 . 1992 . St. James Press . 978-1-55862-175-6 . 340 . 19 August 2023 . en.
  8. Web site: Boris Johnson's mother dies aged 79. 2021-09-17. Oxford Mail. 14 September 2021 . en.
  9. News: Killen . Mary . March 2015 . Boris Johnson's mother on her brilliant brood . . 19 January 2018.
  10. News: Jones . Jonathan . Jonathan Jones (journalist) . 15 May 2008 . What would Boris's artist mum say about his train booze ban? . . 17 May 2008.
  11. News: Guy . Jack . 14 September 2021 . Artist Charlotte Johnson Wahl, mother of UK Prime Minister, dies age 79 . . 15 September 2021.
  12. News: Llewellyn Smith . Julia . 17 May 2008 . Boris Johnson, by his mother Charlotte Johnson Wahl . . 17 May 2008.
  13. https://artuk.org/search/search/search/keyword:charlotte-johnson-wahl--referrer:global-search Charlotte Johnson Wahl paintings
  14. News: Rodger. Hannah. 4 October 2020. Stanley Johnson 'broke wife's nose' in domestic violence incident. The Herald. Glasgow. 14 September 2021.
  15. Web site: Barber. Lynn. Tom Bower pulls his punches with his life of Boris Johnson. 2 December 2021. The Spectator. 22 October 2020 . en.
  16. News: Freedland. Jonathan. 13 October 2020. Boris Johnson: The Gambler by Tom Bower review – the defining secret. en-GB. The Guardian. 13 October 2020.
  17. Web site: The wife of 'Sir Stanley' couldn't tolerate his abuse and nor should the rest of us. The Guardian. Bennett. Catherine. 12 March 2023. 24 October 2023.
  18. News: Boris Johnson's artist mother dies at 79 after living with Parkinson's. The Times. 14 September 2021. Oliver. Wright. 14 September 2021. subscription.
  19. Haynes . Mary . 2022 . Charlotte Johnson Wahl (Née Fawcett), 1942–2021 . 118–120 . The Brown Book . . 24 October 2023.
  20. Web site: Boris Johnson's Mother Says She's Never Voted Tory And Boris 'Isn't As Daft' As He Seems. HuffPost. Ridley. Louise. 28 September 2015. 24 October 2023.
  21. Web site: 27 April 2015. Sleeping with the enemy: meet London's politically cloven couples. 23 October 2020. Evening Standard. en.
  22. News: My mother voted to leave the EU, says Boris Johnson. The Times. Devlin. Kate. 3 October 2019. subscription. 14 April 2020.