Augustus Edwin John

Born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, John studied at the Slade School between 1894 and 1898. He was an outstandingly successful student, winning a Scholarship in 1896 and the Summer Composition Prize two years later. His first one-man exhibition was at the Carfax Gallery in 1899, when he also started exhibiting at the New English Art Club. He visited Paris in 1900, and later travelled in other parts of France as well as Holland and Belgium. He was responsive to the art of Rembrandt and El Greco as much as to Picasso and the influences of Post-Impressionism, and his work included portraits and figure compositions as well as landscape and flowers. Agreat draughtsman, he was a successful portrait painter after the First World War, particularly of literary and society figures. He gained certain notoriety through his flamboyant personality and brand of bohemianism, travelling by caravan with his family, camping with gypsies and learning their language and customs.

Between 1911 and 1914, John spent much time with the painter John Dickson Innes (1887-1914). Both Welshmen, they shared a love of the mountains of their native country, and in the summer of 1911 shared a cottage in Merionethshire, on the slopes of the Migneint. They returned regularly over the next three years, sometimes accompanied by the painter Derwent Lees. This painting almost certainly belongs with the large group of views John made of the district during the period, which are largely characterized by their bold and simple sweeps of flat colour.Born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, John studied at the Slade School between 1894 and 1898. He was an outstandingly successful student, winning a Scholarship in 1896 and the Summer Composition Prize two years later. He visited Paris in 1900, and later travelled in other parts of France as well as Holland and Belgium. He was Professor of Painting at the University of Liverpool from 1901 to 1904. He began exhibiting with the New English Art Club in 1900, and was made a member in 1903, the same year as his first one-man exhibition at the Carfax Gallery. He exhibited at the Alpine Club Gallery, the Chenil, Goupil, and Independent Galleries among many others. He painted in Ireland, Dorset and Wales as well as travelling widely in Europe and the USA. Made an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1921, he became a full Academician in 1928. He was also a member of the London Group from 1940 to 1961.

John was responsive to the art of Rembrandt and El Greco as much as to Picasso and the influences of Post-Impressionism, and his work included portraits and figure compositions as well as landscape and flowers. A great draughtsman, he was a successful portrait painter after the First World War, particularly of literary and society figures. He gained a certain notoriety through his flamboyant personality and brand of bohemianism, travelling by caravan with his family, camping with gypsies and learning their language and customs. His Chiaroscuro, Fragments of Autobiography: First Series was published in 1952.