Jean McLane was born on September 14, 1878 in Chicago and died on January 23, 1964 in New Canaan, Connecticut. Her first studies were with John Vanderpoel at the Art Institute of Chicago. She later studied with Frank Duveneck in Cincinnati, Ohio. MacLane later moved to New York to study with William Merritt Chase. Chase was the first to purchase a painting of her early works.

McLane and her husband, artist John C. Johansen (1876-1964) help found the National Foundation of Portrait Painters in 1912. In that same year, she was invited by a group of philanthropists to depict the Allied Leaders from World War I. McLane provided the only female subject, Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. This paint...