Ezra Pound

Sitterback to top

• Ezra Pound (1885-1972), Poet. Sitter in 5 portraits.

Artistback to top

• (Percy) Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957), Painter and novelist. Artist associated with 39 portraits, Sitter associated with 18 portraits.

This portraitback to top

In the iconography of images of Pound, including several other portraits by Lewis, this is arguably one of the finest. This drawing was made the year Pound left London for Paris. The image manifests Pound's relationship with Wyndham Lewis and their joint activities in relation to Blast, the iconoclastic mouthpiece for Vorticism, to which he contributed both poems and articles. It is a bold exemplar of the Vorticist ethos of dynamism - the lines investing the likeness with a sense of energy, movement and life. Pound had coined the term to describe the British form of European Futurism.

Linked publicationsback to top

• Edwards, Paul, Wyndham Lewis Portraits, 2008 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 3 July to 19 October 2008), p. 56

Linked displays and exhibitionsback to top

• Life lines: Recently acquired 20th Century drawings (31 October 2009 - 25 April 2010)
• Wyndham Lewis Portraits (3 July 2008 - 19 October 2008)
• Portraits on paper (29 July 2006 - 3 December 2006)