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Augustus John
18
th
August 2010, Bedford Gallery
I was speaking to someone the other day and mentioned that I wasgiving a talk on Augustus John, the person I was speaking toimmediately knew the name and much about his life but when Iasked them which of his work they liked best, they were unable tothink of any. They are not alone. John has been somewhat neglectedby art historians, and though there is a large biography of his lifethere is a definite absence of scholarship on his work. One writerputs it down to him not being part of the weave of British art, heinspired some imitators, especially amongst Slade students, butthey soon moved on, and though he moved in artistic circles he wasnever part of a particular group. This idea of him being an outsiderwas exemplified by the Royal Academies survey exhibition in 1987
British Art in the Twentieth Century: The Modern Movement
were allthe greats of British art were shown together, but in which the workof Augustus John was omitted. It was as if what Virginia Woolf hadcalled in 1908 ‘the age of Augustus John’ had never existed.However another reason for the lack of critical writing is that John’swork went rapidly down hill after about 1920. Anthony Blunt wrote‘Everyone is agreed on the fact that Augustus John was born with aquite exceptional talent for painting – some even us the word genius– and almost everyone is agreed that he has in some way wasted it.’ The age of Augustus John, not only can be related to the work that John produced but also to the legend that surrounded him. In thepublic imagination of late Victorian and Edwardian society, herepresented the ultimate bohemian, an honour that he did notexcept but one in which he was unable to contradict. The legend consists of two parts, firstly his talent for drawing andhow he came by it and secondly his relationship with women.
The legend surrounding his talent is summed up on Brooke Bond teacard from the 1960’s.IMAGE: BROOKE BOND TEA CARDS 50
FAMOUS PEOPLE
1969On the front is this picture of John and on the back a very brief biography which starts with the sentence ‘Augustus John hit hishead on a rock whilst diving, and emerged from the water a genius! The first part of this statement is true, but it can be argued that Johnwas a genius long before he hit his head.Augustus was born in Pembrokeshire in 1878.IMAGE:
Augusta and Edwin John
His father Edwin John was a solicitor and his mother Augusta anamateur painter. On his mother’s death when he was just six, hisfather moved the family from Haverford west to Tenby. Hisupbringing though it allowed him a lot of freedom, was marred byhis father who was cripplingly uncommunicative and who wasobsessed with social conventions. When Augustus’s sister, Gwenwas in Paris in 1910 she wrote to her friend ‘My father is here, notbecause he has wished to see me or I to see him but because otherrelations and people he knows, think better of him if he has been toParis to see me!’. Perversely it was Edwin John’s adherence to socialconventions that was to influence Augustus’s abhorrence of all‘moral living’ as he called it.IMAGE:
The four John children with their nurse
Left to right: Gwen, Winifred, Thornton and AugustusAugustus and his sister Gwen had been encouraged by their motherto draw, and after the move to Tenby they used the attic as theirstudio and took their sketchbooks with them wherever they went. Their father, who admitted later that he was a less keen observer of
his sons work than his mother would have been, neither encouragedor discouraged them in this practise. Augustus drawing continued atschool, where he got into trouble for drawing the masters and formaking a series of nude studies from his imagination which wereduly confiscated. His talent was recognised at Tenby art schoolwhich he attended in 1893 where he decided he wanted to becomean artist. His father was more encouraging of this idea than youwould think. He had read in The Times, accounts of sales andsuccess in the art world and thought landscape painting agentlemanly pursuit, leading him to believe that an artist’sprofession was at least tolerably respectable. So with a legacy fromhis mother to pay his fees, Augustus entered the Slade in 1894.In his first years at the Slade he seemed an unremarkablepersonality, possibly more quiet than the other students, he was shyand poor and to begin with he spent most evenings at his aunt’shouse in Acton. The Slade set its emphasis on drawing and Johnshowed an early talent especially in his life drawings. He madefriends and he was happy there but he still had to return to Tenby inthe holidays.It was in the summer of 1897, that John had the accident that was tochange the path of his career. Towards the end of the holidays hewent to bathe in the south sands, the tide was far out but on theturn so he decided to practise his diving from Giltar Point. The waterlooked deep enough to dive in but as he plunged head first into thewater as he wrote later ‘instantly I was made aware of my folly. Theimpact of my skull on a hidden rock was terrific. The universeseemed to explode’. He had ripped his scalp wide open, but possiblydue to the cold water didn’t lose consciousness. The doctor whoattended him told him that he probably owed his life to anuncommonly thick skull. He was not able to go back to the Sladeuntil the autumn and after his long convalescence he wastransformed. Physically his hair had grown and so had a red beard,
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