This work was made in Paris and took one year to carve. The current title is an archaic form of ‘John’ and may refer to John the Baptist. It was once known as Alles, which in German can mean ‘all people’. It has been suggested that in such works Moody fuses several racial types to produce an image of a universal humanity.

The pose recalls ancient Egyptian sculptures. However, one critic has also proposed that Johanaan falls somewhere between the work of the modern artist Jacob Epstein and the monumental figures on Easter Island.