Pencil on paper (previously torn into four pieces),
49.5 x 24 cm, framed and glazed 65 x 37 cm
Signed lower right
Augustus John was one of the finest draughtsmen of the 20th century. An early exponent of Post-Impressionism in Britain, he was considered, at a time, to be the most important artist working in this country. The present drawing fully displays John’s characteristic fluid line and soft, loose modelling.
Born in Pembrokeshire in 1878 he went on to study at the Slade school of art from 1894-98, and became the star pupil of the discerning and intimidating drawing master, Henry Tonks. He would go on to establish himself as as one of the Britains leading portrait painters. A fresh, more natural and informal approach coupled with the ability to capture the emotional and psychological subtleties of his subjects, lead to his commissions being highly sought after. He painted a wide array of impressive contemporaries, such as T.E.Lawrence, George Bernhard Shaw and the socialite Marchesa Casati.
Known, too, for his bohemianism and dramatic love life he was something of an eccentric, which bears out in the present drawing - the tears of which were born out of John’s unusual and at times erratic nature. A copy of a letter, from the month that WWII broke out, on the verso explains them: John writes ‘Francis Taylor is taking all my beloved drawings and things away (many of which I tore up by-the-by in a fit of madness, but he has pieced them together again!)’. Francis Taylor, was John’s art dealer and the father too the actress and star Elizabeth Taylor.
John was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (1921), then Academician (1928), and a member of the London Group (1940). He was awarded the Order of Merit by King George VI in 1942, acted as a trustee of Tate (1933–41), and was elected President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (1948–53).
