AUGUSTUS EDWIN JOHN OM RA (1878-1961)
MODERN BRITISH (20th Century )

Portrait of William Butler Yeats, September 1907 (1907 Wales)

Portrait of William Butler Yeats, September 1907 (Wales)

Item Stock Code

00410

Item Medium Description

Black chalk on paper

Item Signed, Inscribed, Dated Details

Signed

European Dimensions

21.50 cm wide 34.00 cm high

UK/USA Converted Dimensions

8.46 inches wide 13.39 inches high

Item Provenance & History

Hugh Chisholm
Mrs John Hay Whitney, Manhasset, Long Island
Estate of Mrs John Hay Whitney; to 1999

Item Description / Dealer Expertise

Augustus John was first commissioned to paint William Butler Yeats for A. H. Bullen’s edition of the collected works of the poet. The edition was to contain a portrait by a contemporary artist and accordingly an invitation arrived from Lady Gregory for Augustus to stay with her in Ireland. Both artist and poet went reluctantly. However, Yeats became a source of inspiration for Augustus, who later recalled that with his lank forelock falling over his russet brow, his myopic eyes and hierarchic gestures, he was every inch a twilight poet. Pencil studies from this commission now hang in the National Portrait Gallery in London and in the National Gallery of Ireland.

Yeats, initially, was shocked by the severity of Augustus’s portrait:

I felt rather a martyr to him, the students consider him the greatest living draughtsman, the only modern who draws like an old master. But he makes everybody perfectly hideous, beautiful according to his own standard. He exaggerates every hill and hollow of the face till one looks a gypsy, grown old in wickedness and hardship.(1)

Despite these complaints, the poet came to admire Augustus and recognised in his portrayal an Anglo-Irish solitude, a solitude I have made for myself, an outlawed solitude(2) and described Augustus as a delight, and his portraits as beautiful. And so poet and artist became great friends and would sit up late in intimate talk.

(1) Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, Heinemann, London 974, page 260
(2) Ibid, page 262

JOHN

Type	Artist/Maker
Qualificiations	OM RA
Country of origin	England
Born	1878
Died	1961

Augustus John was born in Tenby in 1878. He studied at the Slade School in London (1894-99) with his sister Gwen John. After injuring his head after diving into the sea while on holiday his personality changed. He grew a beard, dressed as a Bohemian and drank heavily. His painting became more adventurous and his friend, Wyndham Lewis remarked that John had become a "great man of action into whose hands the fairies had placed a paintbrush instead of a sword".

Considered to be the most talented artist of his generation, in 1898 John won the Slade Prize with Moses and the Brazen Serpent. He developed a nomadic lifestyle and for a while he lived in a caravan and camped with gypsies. Later he moved in with Henry Lamb and Dorelia McNeill at Alderney Manor near Poole. McNeill, who eventually became John's wife, featured in many of his paintings.

On the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, John was the best-known artist in Britain. His friendship with Lord Beaverbrook enabled him to obtain a commission in the Canadian Army and was given permission to paint what he liked on the Western Front. He was also allowed to keep his facial hair and therefore became the only officer in the Allied forces, except for King George V, to have a beard. After two months in France he was sent home in disgrace after taking part in a brawl.

Lord Beaverbrook, whose intervention saved John from a court-martial, sent him back to France but is only known to have completed one painting, Fraternity. John also attended the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 where he painted the portraits of several delegates. However, the commissioned group portrait of the main figures at the conference was never finished.

By the 1920s John was Britain's leading portrait painter. Those who sat for him included Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw and T.E. Lawrence. However, one critic has claimed that "the painterly brilliance of his early work degenerated into flashiness and bombast, and the second half of his long career added little to his achievement." In later life, John wrote two volumes of autobiography, Chiaroscuro (1952) and Finishing Touches (1964). Augustus John died in 1961.

MODERN BRITISH

Type	School/Factory
Country of origin	Britain
Born	1900
Died	1999

Modern British Art (1900-1980) is one of the most exciting and diverse periods of British Art history, giving rise to a number of influential art movements - such as Unit One, The Bloomsbury Group, The Camden Town Group, St.Ives School, The Vorticists, the Kitchen Sink School and Pop Art - and launching the careers of many internationally renowned artists.

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AUGUSTUS EDWIN JOHN OM RA (1878-1961)
MODERN BRITISH (20th Century )