Powys Evans
(1899-1981), 'Quiz'; caricaturistSitter associated with 1 portrait
Artist associated with 99 portraits
Evans was an illustrator who worked under the name 'Quiz'. He studied at the Slade School of Art but abandoned a career as an oil painter in favour of portrait illustration, and made his name with a set of caricatures of Lovat Fraser's designs to The Beggar's Opera (1922). Exhibited at the Little Rooms and published as a portfolio, these caricatures attracted the attention of the assistant editor of the Saturday Review, who then employed Evans as the house caricaturist. Contributing to a wide variety of periodicals, Evans produced a notable series of portraits in pen and ink for the London Mercury (some of which reappeared in Fifty Heads, 1928) and a number of caricatures for G K's Weekly.
Sir Ernest Alfred Thompson Wallis Budge
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, 1923
NPG 6794
Douglas McGarel Hogg, 1st Viscount Hailsham
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, 1923
NPG 6797
James Edward Hubert Gascoyne-Cecil, 4th Marquess of Salisbury
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, 1923
NPG 6801
Frederic John Napier Thesiger, 1st Viscount Chelmsford
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, 1924
NPG 6795
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, before 1925
NPG 6014
Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, 1925
NPG 6798
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, published 1926
NPG 4403
Alfred Moritz Mond, 1st Baron Melchett
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, 1926
NPG 5062
by Powys Evans
pen and ink, published 1927
NPG 4398
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Geraint Jones
29 December 2018, 15:01
During the 1960s, Powys Evans lived in a top floor flat above our house in Dolgellau, Gwynedd. In retirement, he seems to have returned to painting landscapes. I remember him well and he would rise around dawn during the Summer and disappear for a day's painting in the mountains. We moved in 1967 but I understand he continued living in "Llys Meirion Uchaf" until his death. He was very well known in the town.
Martin Clist
03 January 2022, 09:41
I have a self-portrait in oil of Evans, presumably from his Slade days, very much of the era. Inscribed on the back. He stares at me every day.