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.
Augustus John, Fraternity (1918)
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