Born in Edinburgh, Johnston studied at the Trustees' Academy before coming to London with an introduction to Wilkie. He entered the Royal Academy schools in 1836, and for fifty years was a regular exhibitor at the R.A., the British Institution and the Society of British Artists. He is chiefly known for rather solemn historical subjects, such as Dr Tillotson Administering the Sacrament to William, Lord Russell, in the Tower (R.A. 1845; Tate Gallery), or The Introduction of Flora Macdonald to Prince Charles Edward Stewart after the Battle of Culloden (R.A. 1846), which was sold in these Rooms, 5 February 1965, lot 59 (smaller version at Liverpool). However, like many artists of the time, he also produced 'Keepsake' pictures of pretty girls with fancy titles - masquerading, for instance, as Shakespearean heroines, or, as in the present example, personifying Milton's L'Allegro. A picture of Il Penseroso is also recorded (unidentified engraving in Witt Library), and was possibly conceived as a pair to ours, although it is not an oval. The closest art-historical parallel is the long series of Miltonic subjects which W.E. Frost exhibited from the mid-1840s. A L'Allegro by Frost, with three figures but similar in sentiment to our picture, is in the Royal Collection; see the Art Journal, 1856, frontispiece.