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AUGUSTUS EDWIN JOHN, MODERN BRITISH England 1878 - 1961
Self Portrait
1918 circa - 1919
Pen and sepia ink and wash on brown paper
Dimensions: 32.00 cm x 25.00 cm
Signed in pencil
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Hailed as the greatest draughtsman in Britain, the genius of the Slade School, tall, flamboyant in his cape and hat, pheromones flying, Augustus John went off to war as an official war artist, leaving a string of broken hearts behind. Promoted to the rank of major by the Canadian army, the First World War gave John a new sense of direction in both his life and work. However, as the months wore on and he was left alone in an isolated Chateau to meditate on the devastation, he was in a state of self-crisis: I am in a curious state, wondering who I am. I watch myself closely without yet being able to classify myself. I evade definition – and that must mean I have no character… (1)

Arriving back in London at the end of March 1918, he remained in this state of utter mental confusion (2). This ambiguous portrait, drawn with his accelerated technique, suggests both his fluctuating self-confidence and the old lecherous devil of his former self. He made it for his latest lover, Kathleen Hale, author to be of the Orlando the Marmalade Cat books. Kathleen Hale works as John's unpaid secretary at that time and when he made some money they would go to the Café Royal and blow the lot.


(1) Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, Volume 2: The Years of Experience, Heinemann, London 1975, page 73
(2) Ibid, page 72


Given by the artist to Kathleen Hale, author of Orlando the Marmalade Cat
Estate of Kathleen Hale to 2000; Michael Parkin Fine Art

Exhibition Catalogue no, Page no, Illustration no. Institution/Venue People From To
Master Drawings for Master Drawings London 2003 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
May 2003 September 2003
Medieval To Modern Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
May 2003 June 2004
The Leicester Galleries at the 20/21 British Art Fair, 15 September - 19 September 2004 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries September 2004 November 2004
London Art Fair 2005 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
January 2005 May 2005
The Leicester Galleries at the London Art Fair 2006 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries January 2006 January 2006
The Leicester Galleries at the 20/21 British Art Fair 2006 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries September 2006 September 2006
Master Drawings Week 30 June - 7 July 2006 Peter Nahum At The Leicester Galleries
June 2006 July 2006


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