The Press Gang
Johnston was a successful Scottish painter who produced portraits and historical and genre scenes which were often full of pathos. The Press Gang, is a fine example of narrative art, a type of painting that flourished in the Victorian age. Such pictures are really painted novels; it is no coincidence that the 19th century saw the heyday of the novel. Narrative paintings tell a story through the use of pictorial clues, their characters often posed in a dramatic tableau. Press Gangs were able to seize men, without warning, forcing enlistment into the Navy and were hated in most shipping towns, including Hull - Johnston describes this fear with half-hidden figures and a bridal couple stealing away in the background. A typical scene dominates the foreground as a young man is forced to leave his fiancé or wife. The poster in the painting, which reads GR/Wanted/Spirited/Young Men/for the Navy .... 1798, and the storm-tossed ship on the inn sign contribute to the narrative element.
