Augustus Edwin John
(Wales 1878–1961)
- Title
- Reverie
- Other titles:
- Reverie, The Tired Climber
Dorelia in Cornwall - Year
- circa 1914
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on wood panel
- Dimensions
-
39.5 x 32.0cm sight; 62.8 x 55.0 x 5.5cm frame
- Signature & date
- Signed l.r., black oil "John". Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1933
- Accession number
- 1134
- Copyright
- © Augustus John/The Bridgeman Art Library
- Location
- Modern gallery
- Further information
As the draftsman, colourist and portrait painter of his generation, only Augustus John’s reputation as the archetypal bohemian rivalled his artistic talent. The artist’s status began to grow during his years attending the Slade School of Fine Art in London, winning the prestigious Slade Prize in 1898 with ‘Moses and the Brazen Serpent’. Studying under the drawing masters Henry Tonks and Frederick Brown, even before his graduation John was recognised as the most brilliant draftsman of his generation. By the early 1900s John had become the most famous artist in Britain with his brilliant figure drawing compared to that of Michelangelo, Gauguin and Matisse, and in 1903 at age 25 John became the leading British artist of the day.
The legend of his character, however, had its origins in a walking holiday John took in Pembrokeshire in 1897 when two significant events occurred that would shape his life forever. The first was the artist’s introduction to a group of Irish gypsies, instigating John’s lifelong fascination with gypsy life. The second event was a serious head injury that John suffered after diving onto a rock. Curiously this experience led to a dramatic change in John’s personality and the artist returned to the Slade as a restless scruffy bohemian, a heavy drinker and with a sexual appetite that created torment for the women he loved. Artistically John became, thereafter, a much more adventurous, spontaneous and assured artist, which led to the myth “he had dived into the sea, hit his head on a rock and emerged a genius”. His subjects most commonly featured coastal landscapes, gypsies, his family and fellow artists and he is considered by many as the most talented artist of his generation. (EF)
- Provenance (2)
-
Christie's London (England), 1933, London/England, Purchased by the AGNSW from Christie's London 1933
Sir James Murray (Scotland, b.1837, d.1915), London/England
- Bibliography (7)
-
Ted Gott (Australia) (Author), Laurie Benson (Australia) (Author), Sophie Matthiesson (Australia) (Author), Modern Britain 1900-1960, Melbourne, 2007, 61, 62 (colour illus.).
Wendy Baron (England) (Author), Perfect Moderns: A history of the Camden Town Group, England, 2000, 190.
Peter Tomory (United Kingdom) (Author), Anne Kirker (New Zealand; Australia, b.1947) (Author), British painting 1800-1990 in Australian and New Zealand public collections, Sydney, 1997, 112. cat.no. 1139, as 'Reverie (Dorelia in Cornwall)'
Renée Free (Australia) (Author), Art Gallery of New South Wales catalogue of British paintings, Sydney, 1987, 98 (illus.).
Editor Unknown (Editor), Adelaide Festival of Arts 1966: Special exhibitions at the National Gallery of South Australia, Unknown, 1966. cat. no. 9
Sir John Rothenstein (England, b.1901, d.1992) (Author), Augustus John, 1944, (illus.). pl 21 as 'Dorelia in Cornwall'
'Recent Purchases for the National Art Gallery of NSW' by Sydney Ure Smith, pg. 8-15, Art in Australia 15 May 1934, 15 May 1934, 4 (colour illus.), 9. as 'Reverie, The Tired Climber'
- Exhibition history (3)
-
National Art Gallery of NSW purchases, Arthur Tooth & Sons Ltd, 20 Sep 1933–07 Oct 1933.
British Painting 1900-1950: Adelaide Festival of Arts 1966, National Gallery of South Australia, Mar 1966–Mar 1966.
Modern Britain 1900-1960, NGV: International, 15 Nov 2007–24 Feb 2008.
