First Previous 16 OF 25 NextLast

Augustus John

16 of 25 portraits matching these criteria:

- set matching 'Gerald Brenan album: photographs by Hope-Johnstone'

© reserved; collection National Portrait Gallery, London

 Like voting
is closed

Thanks for Liking

Please Like other favourites!
If they inspire you please support our work.

Make a donation Close

Augustus John

by (Charles) John Hope-Johnstone
platinum print, 1922
4 1/8 in. x 3 1/8 in. (104 mm x 80 mm)
Purchased, 1979
Primary Collection
NPG P134(10)

Sitterback to top

  • Augustus Edwin John (1878-1961), Painter. Sitter in 106 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 33 portraits.

Artistback to top

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 191 Read entry

    Augustus John was the best known British painter of the generation after Sickert, and combined in his work brilliant draughtsmanship with a highly personal use of colour. His genius was for landscapes and portraits, but he was always drawn to large-scale imaginative paintings which were beyond him. Addicted to beautiful women, alcohol and the gipsy life, he was a legendary bohemian, and as early as 1932 T. E. Lawrence described him as 'in ruins'.

    In 1911 John took as tutor to his children Romilly and Robin, John Hope-Johnstone, an equally wayward figure who 'was very unfortunate in combining extreme poverty with the most epicurean tastes I have ever known' (Romilly John). He lived by his wits, working for a time as co-editor of The Gramophone with Compton Mackenzie, and editor of The Burlington Magazine, until sacked by Roger Fry. A brilliant conversationalist, flamboyantly dressed, he was a relentless self-improver, and his interests were omnivorous.

    Not surprisingly, Hope-Johnstone parted from the John household after less than a year, absconding with some of John's paintings, but after the war he re-engaged himself as Robin John's philosopher and guide. In 1922 the pair were staying with the writer and refugee from Bloomsbury, Gerald Brenan, at his house at Ugijar in southern Spain, where it was Hope-Johnstone's 'intention to master the art of photography', importing 'several hundred weight of photographic materials'. According to Brenan, 'most of the photos he took with such care and preparation faded away at the end of a few months because he omitted to fix them properly. Even in his photographic work he was negative and self-destructive'.

    This delicate but intense head of John was taken in May that year when he was visiting the household in Ugijar, and is from an album of Hope-Johnstone's photographs taken at that time, mainly of Brenan, John and his family. John wrote home that they were 'very bad ones, and he's [Hope-Johnstone] very slow about it, changing his spectacles, losing bits of his machine and tripping over the tripod continually'.

Events of 1922back to top

Current affairs

The British Broadcasting Company (later British Broadcasting Corporation) is established to experiment with radio broadcasting. It is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world, providing radio, television and Internet services to the public in Britain and across the world.

Art and science

1922 is a key year for modernist literature with the publication of James Joyce's novel, Ulysses and T.S. Eliot's poem, The Waste Land. Both broke new ground with Ulysses (loosely based on Homer's Odyssey) introducing the 'stream of consciousness' narrative technique, and The Waste Land experimenting with multiple voices and a patchwork of literary, historic, mythological and personal allusions.

International

The Soviet Union is formed under Joseph Stalin who takes power after Lenin suffers a debilitating stroke.
In an attempt to avoid civil war, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy invites Benito Mussolini to form a new government following the Fascist Party's March on Rome.

Comments back to top

We are currently unable to accept new comments, but any past comments are available to read below.

If you need information from us, please use our Archive enquiry service . Please note that we cannot provide valuations. You can buy a print or greeting card of most illustrated portraits. Select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Buy a Print button. Prices start at around £6 for unframed prints, £16 for framed prints. If you wish to license an image, select the portrait of interest to you, then look out for a Use this image button, or contact our Rights and Images service. We digitise over 8,000 portraits a year and we cannot guarantee being able to digitise images that are not already scheduled.