Self-Portrait, c.1950

“Such deliberately exhibitionist self-portraits are frequently more experimental than other works, for, without the pressures of time or a patron’s desires, the artist could focus directly on his talent…”

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At the turn of the century the arts in Britain experienced an over-haul, the rigid formalities of the Victorian age were being replaced with a bohemian energy and lust for radical change.

Augustus John was at the forefront, his quick-pace brushwork and wild attitude instantly earning him respect amongst his peers, producing works of outstanding colour and design with apparent ease.

Like many other great artists, self-portraits play a vital role in John’s oeuvre. They are the most revealing introspective look at ones personality and character, in a way which no amount of familiarity with any other sitter could replicate. John painted numerous self-portraits throughout his life-long career allowing for a brilliant analysis of character. One of John’s earliest self-portraits Tete farouche[Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge] recorded as an etching at the age of only twenty-one, shows a young man with a sense of determination and confidence, and on a technical level, a great understanding of medium. Such deliberately exhibitionist self-portraits are frequently more experimental than other works, for, without the pressures of time or a patron’s desires, the artist could focus directly on his talent, and, ignoring the constraints of fashion or etiquette, produce a pure distillation of skill.

It was after his election as a member of the Royal Academy (and subsequent resignation in 1938 over the refusal of a Wynham Lewis portrait) that John entered the most difficult period of his career. He suffered badly at the hands of the critics and although still exhibited in the West End, exclusively with Arthur Tooth & Sons up until his death, his exhibitions became less frequent. Part of the reason is perhaps due to his perceived departure from the rustic image as an almost vigilante artist, roaming the countryside and living in a caravan, to exhibiting in the West End. The wildness of his earlier days was perhaps considered a thing of the past, one critic stating; ‘this lyric mode belongs essentially to youth.’ (1) It was an age of uncertainty for John therefore, and we can judge, through only his eyes, the look of surprise and bewilderment associated with this period of transition.

In his later works, John was far more liberal with his application of paint and they appear to be more highly worked. They still however reveal John’s career-long technique of block colouring, especially evident in the background of the present work where patches of different colour tones seamlessly blend into one another. The self-portrayal’s rapidity and virtuoso handling is reminiscent of Wyndham Lewis’s description of John; ‘a great man of action into whose hands the fairies had stuck a brush instead of a sword’.