Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 6

Augustus Edwin John
Augustus Edwin John original watercolour drawing of a caveman, British

About the Item

This is one of a number of drawings that was accompanied by a signed letter from Augustus Edwin John which read as follows `Alderney Manor/ Nr Parkstone, Dorset / Dear Hodge, I send a few rough sketches hoping they’ be in time to be useful as suggestions. I`m sorry I couldn`t manage to send them before/ Augustus John/ I think the figures ought to be well above life size’ This fun drawing is a chance to buy an original work by one of Britain's most distinguished artists of the 20th Century. Augustus John was a Welsh portraitist, landscape painter, draughtsman, lithographer and etcher. Born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, John was the youngest son of Edwin William John, a Welsh solicitor, and Augusta Smith, born of a long line of Sussex master plumbers. It was Augusta who instilled a passion for drawing in the young Augustus and his sister Gwen John. At seventeen, John attended the Tenby School of Art, leaving in 1894 to study at the Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, until 1899. He quickly established his name as the star pupil of the drawing master, Henry Tonks. John endured a head injury while swimming in 1897, which is said to have permanently altered his character, yet rather surprisingly, the incident seems to have stoked his artistic ambition, and he went on to win the Slade Summer Art Prize the following year. John was already recognised as a talented draughtsman, and he used his prize money to visit a Rembrandt exhibition in Amsterdam.[1] In 1898, John went to Paris to study the Old Masters in the Louvre. He also absorbed influences from his French contemporaries, most notably, Matisse and Gaugin. John’s vivid colour palette and emphatic form evoke the work of Botticelli, Picasso and particularly Puvis de Chavannes. In 1901, John married Ida Nettleship and together they had five children, with John accepting a role as art teacher at the University of Liverpool to support them before moving to London in 1902, where he founded, with his Slade compatriot William Orpen, the Chelsea Art School (1903–7). In 1903 he was elected to the New English Art Club, and met his famous muse, Dorothy McNeill, known as ‘Dorelia’. John’s complex love life saw him father children with both women and juggle two families until Nettleship’s death in 1907. He and Dorelia had two further children. During the First World War, John spent two months in France as a war artist, painting several memorable portraits of Canadian infantrymen. His style during this period has been described as rather superficial; but his later portraits of important politicians, society and literary personalities, actors, dancers recaptured his characteristic boldness of form and colour. John was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (1921), then Academician (1928), and a member of the London Group (1940). He was awarded the Order of Merit by King George VI in 1942, acted as a trustee of Tate (1933–41), and was elected President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (1948–53). The details of the work are as follows: AUGUSTUS EDWIN JOHN OM RA (BRITISH, 1878 –1961) CAVEMAN Ink and watercolour, squared with pencil 8.1/2 x 6.1/8 in. (20.6 x 15.5 cm.)
  • Creator:
    Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961, British)
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 8.5 in (21.59 cm)Width: 6.13 in (15.58 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
    Some creasings, surface dirt, foxmarks. Behind glass, in a cream wooden slip, with swept gilt frame, hand-finished recently.
  • Gallery Location:
    Petworth, GB
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU540314550682

More From This Seller

View All
Augustus Edwin John original watercolour drawing of a caveman couple, British
By Augustus Edwin John
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
This is one of a number of drawings that was accompanied by a signed letter from Augustus Edwin John which read as follows `Alderney Manor/ Nr Parkstone, Dorset / Dear Hodge, I send ...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Augustus Edwin John original watercolour drawing of a caveman, British, 20th C
By Augustus Edwin John
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
This is one of a number of drawings that was accompanied by a signed letter from Augustus Edwin John which read as follows `Alderney Manor/ Nr Parkstone, Dorset / Dear Hodge, I send ...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Augustus Edwin John original watercolour drawing of a cavewoman, British
By Augustus Edwin John
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
This is one of a number of drawings that was accompanied by a signed letter from Augustus Edwin John which read as follows `Alderney Manor/ Nr Parkstone, Dorset / Dear Hodge, I send ...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Augustus Edwin John original watercolour drawing of cavemen, British
By Augustus Edwin John
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
This is one of a number of drawings that was accompanied by a signed letter from Augustus Edwin John which read as follows `Alderney Manor/ Nr Parkstone, Dorset / Dear Hodge, I send ...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Augustus Edwin John original watercolour drawing of cave people, British
By Augustus Edwin John
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
This is one of a number of drawings that was accompanied by a signed letter from Augustus Edwin John which read as follows `Alderney Manor/ Nr Parkstone, Dorset / Dear Hodge, I send ...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

Augustus Edwin John original watercolour drawing of a caveman family, British
By Augustus Edwin John
Located in Petworth, West Sussex
This is one of a number of drawings that was accompanied by a signed letter from Augustus Edwin John which read as follows `Alderney Manor/ Nr Parkstone, Dorset / Dear Hodge, I send ...
Category

20th Century Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor

You May Also Like

Paul JOUVE (1878-1973), "The Camel Riders"
By Paul Jouve
Located in Paris, FR
Paul Jouve was a French illustrator and sculptor, passionate about animals from a young age, which he discovered at the Natural History Museum and in Parisian zoos. He is the most fa...
Category

1930s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, India Ink, Gouache, Pencil

Georgian Contemporary Art by Maria Vanishvili - N222
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylic, watercolour, marker & ink on paper Maria Vanishvili is a Georgian artist born in 2004 who lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. She signa her...
Category

2010s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor, Permanent Marker

Georgian Contemporary Art by Maria Vanishvili - N333
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylic, watercolour, marker & ink on paper Maria Vanishvili is a Georgian artist born in 2004 who lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. She signa her...
Category

2010s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor, Permanent Marker

Georgian Contemporary Art by Maria Vanishvili - N111
Located in Paris, IDF
Acrylic, watercolour, marker & ink on paper Maria Vanishvili is a Georgian artist born in 2004 who lives and works in Tbilisi, Georgia. She signa her...
Category

2010s Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Acrylic, Watercolor, Permanent Marker

Magazine Cover Illustration Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre Broadway Realism WPA
By Ernest Hamlin Baker
Located in New York, NY
Magazine Cover Illustration Mid 20th Century Modern Theatre Broadway Realism WPA Ernest Hamlin Baker (1889 – 1975) “Today Magazine” Cover ...
Category

1930s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Gouache, Paper, Watercolor, Ink

Family at the Beach WPA Modernism American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century
By William Gropper
Located in New York, NY
Family at the Beach WPA Modernism American Scene Social Realism Mid 20th Century William Gropper (1898 - 1977) "Family at the Beach" 27 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches Mixed media on paper, c. 1940 Signed lower left Provenance: Estate of the artist. The drawing will ship from the home of Mr. Gropper's grandson. Bio Throughout his life, William Gropper used his artistic talents to protest social injustice. Born in New York City, he grew up there in poverty and left high school to work as a dishwasher and delivery boy. He eventually began a career in art and was able to study with Robert Henri and George Bellows from 1912 to 1915. He adopted their realistic painting style, and his own work expressed sympathy for common laborers and outrage at society's ills. In 1919 Gropper established a reputation as a political cartoonist working for the New York Tribune. His blunt, forceful style attracted the attention of other publications, and he provided illustrations and cartoons for a variety of magazines, from the left-wing New Masses to mainstream Vanity Fair. Like many social realist artists of the 1930s, Gropper supported liberal political causes, depicting subjects such as the plight of migrant laborers and striking factory workers. In his first gallery exhibition in 1936 at ACA Galleries, Gropper's work was so well received by critics, collectors, and artists that the following year he had two one-man exhibitions at ACA Galleries. In 1937, Gropper traveled west on a Guggenheim Fellowship and visited the Dust Bowl and the Hoover and Grand Coulee Dams, sketching studies for a series of paintings and a mural he painted for the Department of the Interior. That same year he had paintings purchased by both the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art. Gropper exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair, Whitney Museum of American Art (1924-55), Art Institute of Chicago (1935-49), Carnegie International (1937-50), Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (1939-48), and National Academy of Design (1945-48). He was a founder of the Artists Equity Association and member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters. From 1940 to 1945 William Gropper was preoccupied with anti-Nazi cartoons...
Category

1940s American Modern Figurative Drawings and Watercolors

Materials

Paper, Ink, Watercolor, Gouache

Recently Viewed

View All