John Young Johnstone (November 12, 1887[1] – February 13, 1930)[2] was a Canadian Impressionist painter, known for his paintings of life in city, town or countryside, as well as for scenes of Montreal's Chinatown.

In 1905–1910, he studied with William Brymner at the Art Association of Montreal, then in Paris, France at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in 1911–1915 with Lucien Simon and Émile-René Ménard.

In Paris, where he shared a studio with Adrien Hérbert,[6] he painted a number of small Impressionist cityscapes and landscape in the French countryside, Switzerland and Belgium.

[5] In 1921 he inherited from his mother a pre-Confederation townhouse at 781 University Street (now 3533) and proceeded to transform the upper floor to a six metre high studio where he painted and lived with friends until his departure for Cuba.

[3][6] A self portrait in the collection of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, shows him with a handsome, half-smiling visage looking up attentively at something over the viewer's shoulder but accounts of his fits of depression and a resulting habit of heavy drinking suggest a darker side to his personality.