Lewis was an outstanding draughtsman and his drawings provide insight into his views on personality. In his 1937 autobiography, Blasting and Bombardiering, Lewis wrote that “people seem to me to be rather walking notions than ‘real’ entities.” Lewis’s pencil portraits often concentrate on the sitter’s faces in fine detail, leaving their bodies barely sketched in. These portraits present apparitions, rather than fleshy human beings.
Lewis’s dynamic and highly stylised drawings of Ezra Pound from the early 1920s are a good example of his ability to produce a kind of equivalent of a
personality, rather than a mere copy of a physical appearance. Less final than paintings, the drawings were a quick and precise yet economical way to depict sitters. These spectres of personalities remind us that Lewis had an unconventional view of people as ‘walking notions’ and embodiments of ideas.