John, Augustus Edwin

John, Augustus Edwin (1878-1961), British portrait painter, who was considered one of Britain’s leading artists during his lifetime, although his reputation has since declined.

John was born on January 4, 1878, in Tenby, Wales, the son of a solicitor. He attended the Slade School of Art, London, from 1894 to 1898, where his draughtsmanship drew early acclaim. A head injury suffered while diving in the sea one holiday in 1897 led to an alteration in both his personality and his artistic style. John’s friend Wyndham Lewis said that he was “a great man of action into whose hands the fairies had placed a paintbrush instead of a sword”. At the end of his studies he won the Slade Prize with Moses and the Serpent.

In the years that followed, John lived a footloose, bohemian lifestyle and gained a widespread reputation as an independent and rebellious artist. The need to support a growing family—he married Ida Nettleship in 1901, with whom he had five children before she died in 1907—led him to take a teaching job at the University of Liverpool, where he met John Sampson, an expert on the Roma (gypsy) way of life and language, introducing John to a subject in which he was to remain interested throughout his life. Between 1911 and 1914, John lived in a caravan, painting and etching many scenes of the Romanies with whom he camped, as well as landscapes of the surrounding countryside. John later lived with Henry Lamb and Doreila McNeill at Alderney Manor, near Poole, in Dorset. McNeill, like Ida, was the subject of many of his paintings and became his second wife.

Influenced by the French Post-Impressionist painters, John developed a vigorous and original style, marked by fluent brush technique and striking character portrayal. His use of large areas of brilliant colour, broad rhythms, and a free technique established him as one of the leading portraitists of his generation.

During World War I, thanks to connections with Lord Beaverbrook, he was commissioned into the Canadian Army, employed as an official war artist, and permitted to paint what he chose on the Western Front. Despite being sent home in disgrace for brawling after only a few months, he was able to avoid court martial and returned to France, where he executed a number of notable portraits of Canadian infantrymen. He attended the 1919 Versailles Peace Conference, where he painted portraits of several leading figures, although a commissioned group portrait remained uncompleted.

During John’s career his sitters included royalty, literary giants, society beauties, other artists, musicians, and theatrical luminaries. Among these are Dylan Thomas (c. 1938, National Museum of Wales, Cardiff) and Tallulah Bankhead (c. 1933, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.). However, although he continued to be a revered and popular figure, the brilliance of his early paintings diminished and the body of work from the second half of his career, in the eyes of various critics and art historians, was lightweight and flashy, failing to live up to his earlier promise. He was awarded the Order of Merit in 1942.

John’s sister Gwen was also a talented painter. Their styles contrasted sharply and while his reputation declined after his death, hers grew. In 2004 an exhibition showing the work of both artists was held at Tate Britain.