The ICMA mourns the loss of Danielle Johnson, ICMA Foreign Secretary and longtime supporter of the ICMA. Read below for an opportunity to share your memories of Danielle and a remembrance from Charles Little, past ICMA President.
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Professors Jan Marquardt and Anna Russakoff would like to put together some reminiscences of people’s contacts with Danielle in Paris over the years that we can present to her husband and daughter. We’d love to hear about your experiences with Danielle. Please send to your write-up by December 1 to Anna Russakoff. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
All best wishes,
Anna Russakoff and Jan Marquardt
Please send the write-up to: annadrussakoff@gmail.com
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In Memoriam – Danielle Valin Johnson (1938-2019)
International Center of Medieval Art and a vast community of scholars and friends lost one of its most beloved members this week.
Raised in upstate New York, Danielle graduated from Wells College. Her life quickly took her into banking, and with a Harvard MBA, she and her husband, Dick, together launched their life-long love of Europe; first to Hamburg, then to The Hague and finally settling in Paris.
Her 1984 dissertation for the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden became a springboard to a life of learning in her new Parisian home. That study, “Architectural sculpture in the region of the Aisne/Oise valleys during the late 11th/early 12th centuries,” evolved into a 2014 digital publication The Transition of Romanesque to Early Gothic Architectural Sculpture in the Ile-de-France. Together these defined the parameters of much of her research in the region. It led to numerous discoveries and re-discoveries such as finding a virtually unknown Romanesque chapel, dedicated to Saint-Aignan, in the shadow of Notre-Dame-de-Paris. The “hot news” became a 1999 collaborative article in the Bulletin Monumental. Her desire to better understand the working methods of the medieval sculptor led her to carve, under the tutelage of a master mason, a large decorative “Romanesque” capital, the results of these efforts appeared in Gesta (28/1, 1986). That large capital never moved from the front door of their home making a greeting statement for those entering.
Danielle immediately connected to medieval specialist of all ages and her Paris home became the “welcome center” for virtually all Americans: those seeking advice, those needing introductions or just trying to navigate the world of research in Paris, or simply needing a place to get one’s bearings. Danielle’s collaboration with so many scholars is legendary, becoming a window of medieval activism in Paris for decades. From the 1980’s Danielle became the “foreign secretary” for the ICMA and demonstrably promoted the organization and collected dues from European members. At the same time, Danielle was instrumental in launching from her home a medieval studies group, bringing together visiting medievalists and also hosting music events like the Boston Camerata. In addition, her home also effectively became the French headquarters for the Limestone Sculpture Provenance Project that had become an ICMA initiative. In addition, her eagerness to support professional women in Paris led her in new directions of generosity of spirit. Her love of dogs was a succession of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels all named for Carolingian royalty and they were guardians and greeters to all.
Danielle was always game to explore monuments whether it was to Saint-Denis with archaeologist Michaël Wyss, to Chartres with Anne Prache, to Reims with Dany Sandron, or to Amiens with Bill Clark. Her enthusiastic motto “have car, will travel” always added pleasure. Off to limestone quarries around the Île-de-France or Champagne with Annie and Philippe Blanc or adventuring to Burgundy and Cluny for the abbey’s anniversary celebration in 2010, Danielle always was ready for a new medieval adventure.
Danielle’s joie de vivre and contagious enthusiasm was to “be bad,” that is being the best one can be. It was serious advice for all who knew her.
Requiesce in pace.
Charles Little
Past President International Center of Medieval Art
16 November 2019
