Augustus John
Page 96
You’ll hear folks remarking:
‘There goes an Augustus John!’
Chorus John! John!
If you’d get on,
The quaintest of clothes you must don!
When out for an airing,
You’ll hear folks declaring:
‘There goes an Augustus John!’
Good people acquainted
With Singer or Strang
Will sit to them week after week!
It’s nice being painted
By Nicholson’s gang,
And McEvoy’s touch is unique!
But if ‘in the know,’
You’ll hasten to go
Where all the best people have gone;
His portraits don’t flatter
But that doesn’t matter,
So long as you’re painted by John!
Augustus John!
Refrain John! John!
If you’d get on,
Just sit for a bit, and you’ll see!
Your curious shape
He will cunningly drape
With an Inverness cape to the knee!
What a wealth of design!
And what colour and line!
He turns ev’ry goose to a swan!
And though you’re not handsome,
You’re worth a king’s ransom,
If you’re an ‘Augustus John!’
Chorus John! John!
How he’s got on!
He turns ev’ry goose to a swan!
You needn’t be pretty,
Or wealthy or witty,
If you’re an ‘Augustus John!’
Our ancestors freely
Expressed their dislike
Of all unconventional styles;
They raved about Lely,
They worshipped Vandyke,
And Leighton they greeted with smiles!
To-day if one owns
A Watts or Burne-Jones,
Its subject seems bloodless and wan!
One misses the vigour,
The matronly figure,
That marks all the drawings of John!
Augustus John!
Refrain John! John!
How he’s got on!
He’s quite at the top of the tree!
From Cotman to Corot,
From Tonks to George Morrow,
There’s no-one as famous as he!
On the scrap-heap we’ll cast
All those works of the past
By stars that once splendidly shone!
Send Hoppners and Knellers
To attics and cellars,
And stick to Augustus John!
Chorus John! John!
How he’s got on!
No light half so brightly has shone!
The verdict of Chelsea’s
That nobody else is
A patch on Augustus John!
Chorus
Miss SILVIA FAUSSETT BAKER.
Miss FAITH CELLI.
Miss VERA BERINGER.
Miss BERYL FREEMAN.
Miss WINIFRED BATEMAN.
Miss MANORA THEW.
Miss ELLEN O’MALLEY.
Miss ELSIE MCNAUGHT.
Mrs. CAMPBELL.
Miss ETHEL MACKAY.
Mdme VANDERVELDE.
Mrs, GORDON CRAIG.
Miss SYLVIA MEYER.
Miss MARGARET GUINNESS.
Miss MARJORIE ELVERY.
Miss EVE BALFOUR.
Miss STELLA STOREY.
Miss DOROTHY GOODDAY.
Miss JANET ROSS.
Miss OLGA WARD.
Miss BARBARA HILES.
Miss PHYLLIS DICKSEE.
The HON. SYLVIA BRETT.
Miss IRENE RUSSELL.
Miss NORTH.
Mrs. HENDERSON.
Mrs. FRENCH.
Miss EMILY LOWES.
Miss DOROTHY CHRISTINE.
Miss D’ERLANGER.
Miss HONOR WIGGLESWORTH.
Mrs. HANNEY.
Mrs. NIGEL PLAYFAIR.
Masters GILES and LYON PLAYFAIR.
Mrs. DODGSON.
Miss FAUSSETT.
and
CARRINGTON.
Appendix Six
JOHN’S PICTURES AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY
1921 Elected Associate
1922
14
Mrs Valentine Fleming
155
Capt. the Hon. Frederick Guest, MP
637
The Rev. Padre Fray Jose-Maria Lozkoz Biguria de Elizondo 639 Viva
675
G. Bernard Shaw, Esq. (presented to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)
1924
27
Princess Antoine Bibesco
127
Robert Fleming 630 Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, GBE, PRS, DSc.
1928 Elected Royal Academician
1929
67
Portrait of a Man
177
J. L. S. Hatton, Esq., MA, Principal, East London College
1930
52
Miss Tallulah Bankhead (now at the National Gallery, Washington)
222
Sir Gerald du Maurier
232
Magnolias
240
The Earl Spencer
266
Portrait of a Young Man (Diploma Work)
1205
Sketch for a Version of Omar Khayyam
1931
118
William Butler Yeats
308
Brenda, Daughter of Senator and Mrs Oliver St John Gogarty
318
The Viscount D’Abernon, GCB, GCMG
1934
3
Major Clifford Hugh Douglas
1935
194
Lord David Cecil (purchased by the President and Council of the Royal Academy under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest)
284
The Lord Conway of Allington
288
Professor J. Cunningham M’Lennan, FRS
376
Miss Thelma Cazalet, MP
1214
James Joyce (chalk)
1936
57
Mrs Harry Sacher
168
Thomas Barclay, Esq.
1938 Resigned
1940 Re-elected
52
Blue Cineraria (Chantrey Purchase)
60
H. S. Goodhart-Rendell, FRIBA
94
The Rt Hon. Vincent Massey
183
Mrs Oliver Harvey
230
The Lord Alington
1941
3
W. B. Yeats (Chantrey Purchase)
164
Major-General The Earl of Athlone, KG
1942
106
The Mask (Harry Melville)
110
The Viscount Caldecote, CBE
1943
238
Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles F. A. Portal
1944
51
Dr H. H. E. Craster, Bodley’s Librarian
220
General Sir Bernard Montgomery
989
Lawrence J. Clements, Esq. (chalk)
990
Poppet (chalk)
993
Lauretta [Nicholson] (chalk)
994
Mary (chalk)
997
General Sir Bernard Montgomery (chalk)
1945
1073
Mrs Michael Pugh (chalk)
1090
General Sir Hastings Ismay (chalk)
1094
The Duke of Alba (chalk)
1098
Master Tom Pugh (chalk)
1102
Master Tim Pugh (chalk)
1106
The Duchess of Montoro (chalk)
1125
Michael Pugh, Esq. (chalk)
1950
3
Matthew Smith (Chantrey Purchase)
58
The White Feather Boa
94
Henry Elphin John
128
Gonnoske Komai
148
The Little Concert
1065
Portrait of a Woman (red chalk)
1066
Walter de la Mare (chalk)
1951
129
Caspar John
132
Mrs Robert Adeane
135
Young Negress
779
Reclining Nude
879
Two Heads of Women (chalk)
880
Sketch for Composition (pen and wash)
1952
1114
The Hurdy-Gurdy Man (red chalk)
An Apostle (red chalk)
1953
980
Dr Hubert Noel (chalk)
984
The Disciple (chalk)
1955
98
Gloxinia (Chantrey Purchase)
1957
89
Edward Grove (Chantrey Purchase)
1958
74
Theodore Powys (Chantrey Purchase)
1959
22
Dorelia
91
Simone
1960
52
Portrait of a Man
168
The Late Viscount D’Abernon
1961 Died 31 October
1962
123
Dorelia
124
The Blue Lake
125
Portrait of the Artist
876
Lady with a Scarf
877
Family Group
878
Ursula Tyrwhitt
Appendix Seven
AUGUSTUS JOHN: CHRONOLOGY AND ITINERARY
1878
4 January, born at Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales.
1884
August, mother dies. Family move from Haverfordwest to Tenby.
1894–8
Slade School of Fine Art, London.
1897
Bathing accident.
1898
‘Moses and the Brazen Serpent’ wins the Summer Composition Prize. Visits Holland with Ambrose McEvoy.
1899
First one-man show at Carfax Gallery. Makes £30 and goes to Vattetot-sur-Mer with William Rothenstein, William Orpen, Charles Conder. Meets Oscar Wilde in Paris. Begins exhibiting at New English Art Club.
1900
Goes to Swanage with Conder. ‘Walpurgis Night’. Visits Le Puy-en-Velay with the Rothensteins and Michel Salaman. Painted by Orpen.
1901
12 January, marries Ida Nettleship. Moves into 18 Fitzroy Street, London.
1901–2
Art instructor at Liverpool. Meets John Sampson and the Dowdalls. Etchings.
1902
6 January, David born.
1903
Elected to NEAC.
January, meets Dorothy McNeill in London. March, Carfax Gallery: ‘Paintings [3], Pastels [8], Drawings [21] and Etchings [13] by Augustus E. John’; ‘Paintings [3] by Gwen John’.
22 March, Caspar born.
August, Gwen and Dorelia’s ‘walk to Rome’, via Toulouse. Augustus and Ida move to Elm House, Matching Green, Essex.
1903–7
Involved with Orpen and Knewstub in Chelsea Art School, Rossetti Studios.
1904
Gwen and Dorelia arrive in Paris. Dorelia elopes to Bruges.
August, Dorelia returns and lives at Elm House.
Augustus elected to membership of the Society of Twelve.
23 October, Ida’s Robin born.
1905
April–May, on Dartmoor. Dorelia’s Pyramus born.
September, emigration to rue Monsieur-le-Prince, Paris.
November, Chenil Gallery: ‘Drawings by Aug. E. John [42] and William Orpen [22]’.
27 November, Ida’s Edwin born.
1906
January, move to 77 rue Dareau, Paris.
May, Chenil Gallery: Eighty-Two Etchings. First drawings of Alick Schepeler.
August, at Ste-Honorine-des-Perthes with Wyndham Lewis. Dorelia’s Romilly born.
November, Dorelia detaches herself and moves to 48 rue du Château.
1907
February, Augustus and Ida move to 3 Cour de Rohan.
9 March, Ida’s Henry born.
14 March, Ida dies.
Summer at Equihen with Dorelia.
September, visits Lady Gregory at Coole, Ireland. Paints W. B. Yeats. Moves to 8 Fitzroy Street, London.
November, Carfax Gallery. Eighty-one drawings.
1908
Gets to know Lady Ottoline Morrell. Starts off for Spain, via Paris.
July–September, at Dielette with Dorelia and children. Visited by Mrs Nettleship.
Autumn, moves into 153 Church Street with Dorelia and families.
1909
January, paints William Nicholson. Takes studio at 181a King’s Road.
July, caravans to Cambridge. Paints Jane Harrison. August, paints ‘His Worship the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, and Smith’.
Meets John Quinn in London.
September, agrees to decorate Hugh Lane’s house.
1910
January–September, travels, at Quinn’s expense, to Italy and Provence. Visits Frank Harris at Nice.
April, Villa Ste-Anne, Martigues.
October, ‘The Smiling Woman’ becomes the first purchase of the Contemporary Art Society (£225) and is later (1917) given to the Tate Gallery.
November–December, Chenil Gallery: ‘Provençal Studies [48] and Other Works [35 drawings]’. Begins working with J. D. Innes.
1911
Elected to the Camden Town Group.
May, rents cottage with Innes in North Wales.
July, paints Kuno Meyer in Liverpool.
August, moves to Alderney Manor.
September, in France with Quinn.
October, in Wales.
December, Chenil Gallery: Paintings, Drawings and Etchings.
1912
March, Pyramus dies. Poppet is born.
Summer, west coast of Ireland with Francis Macnamara and Oliver St John Gogarty.
September, stays at Chirk Castle with the Howard de Waldens.
1913
January, in South of France with Innes.
February, Armory Show, New York (23 paintings, 14 drawings).
Spring, Madam Strindberg’s cabaret club opens.
July, North Wales with Holbrooke and Sime.
August, visits Modigliani in Paris.
September, North Wales.
November, Goupil Gallery: Fifteen Panels.
1914
February, elected President of the National Portrait Society. In Cornwall with Laura Knight and others.
April, Crab Tree Club opens.
May, Cardiganshire. Gives up studio at 181a King’s Road, moves into 28 Mallord Street.
June, one week in Boulogne.
August, Eilean Shona, Archarcle, Argyllshire. Last visits to Innes at Brighton and Swanley in Kent before his death.
October–November, drilling with Wadsworth in the courtyard of the Royal Academy.
December, sees Gwen John in Paris. Fails to persuade her to return to England.