(Rudolph) John Frederick Lehmann

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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(Rudolph) John Frederick Lehmann

by Derek Hill
oil on canvas, 1984
15 7/8 in. x 18 in. (404 mm x 455 mm)
Bequeathed by John Frederick Lehmann, 1988
Primary Collection
NPG 5985

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • (Arthur) Derek Hill (1916-2000), Artist, writer and organiser of exhibitions. Artist or producer associated with 9 portraits, Sitter in 5 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Clerk, Honor, The Sitwells, 1994 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 14 October - 22 January 1995), p. 145 Read entry

    'I think when I die', Edith wrote to John Lehmann, 'I shall have to have inscribed on my tomb: "She is still grateful to John Lehmann!"1 The writer and editor John Lehmann (1907-1987) was brought into the Sitwell fold by the publication of Street Songs in 1942. 'To most of us in London', he wrote in his autobiography, 'it seemed that another great event had happened in English poetry.'2 As an editor (of New Writing in its various forms from 1936 and of The London Magazine from 1954) and as a promoter of her work, Lehmann was a useful and influential ally. Under his own imprint he published The Shadow of Cain (1947) and Edith's anthology, The American Genius (1951); and both Edith and Osbert contributed to other titles he published. But his real value to Edith was as a friend and correspondent for twenty years. Writing to him became a reflex for Edith and her reaction to subjects as disparate as the death of Dylan Thomas and the annoying habits of the members of the Sesame Club can be gauged from her letters to him. His biography of all three Sitwells, A Nest of Tigers, was begun during Edith's lifetime with her approval, and published in 1968. The book and its title, taken from a remark Edith made about herself and her brothers, annoyed Sacheverell, who called it 'idiotic'.

    1 Quoted in Victoria Glendinning, Edith Sitwell, A Unicorn among Lions, 1981, p 253.

    2 Ibid., p 236.

  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 374

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1984back to top

Current affairs

The Provisional IRA bomb the Grand Hotel in Brighton where various politicians, including the Prime Minister, where staying for the annual Conservative Party conference. The bomb killed five people including a conservative MP, but no members of the cabinet. Thatcher began the next session of the conference the following morning at 9.30 as planned saying: 'all attempts to destroy democracy by terrorism will fail.'

Art and science

Dr Alec Jeffreys discovers that patterns in an individual's DNA can be identified and that each person has a unique 'genetic fingerprint'. The technique was soon utilised by forensic scientists to help in criminal investigations, and in order to identify human remains, for paternity testing, and to match organ donors.
Ted Hughes is appointed poet Laureate.

International

Ethiopia suffers severe drought and famine. The Ethiopian government responded by uprooting large numbers of peasants in the worst affected areas and by setting up new villages for the displaced people. However, the planned villages were frequently poorly equipped and many people chose to flee rather than acquiesce with government plans leading to further decline in food production and bringing the total death toll to over 1 million.

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