Details
LAWRENCE, Thomas Edward (1888-1935). Autograph letter signed ('T.E. Shaw') to Mrs Lionel Curtis, Myrtle Cottage, Hythe, 25 January 1932, 1½ pages, 4to, including a postscript signed ('T.E.S.').
Expressing his views about who should paint Lionel Curtis's portrait, and strongly recommending Augustus John. Lawrence dismisses [Maurice] Greiffenhagen [who had died the previous year] as 'definitely a bad artist' pointing out that 'to get something more than a representation...you have to compromise between the likeness and the work of art...By going to John you get at least the most succinct and independent-minded artist's opinion of the sitter...I do not know if there is today a stronger-minded artist than John at work. But of course not even John can say beforehand what he will think or paint of any sitter. He generally flatters his men and debases his women - so I think'.
Lawrence offers to ask John about his fee, and in his postscript argues again in his favour, 'For myself I would rather possess (or be the subject of) a sketch by John than a finished study by any other painter now alive'.
In 1932 Lawrence was stationed at Hythe, on the Isle of Wight, on secondment to the RAF marine branch while, as he writes, 'testing motor boats'. Augustus John had made a number of portrait drawings of Lawrence, the first at the Peace Conference when he had also drawn Sherif Feisal, and at Lawrence's suggestion had painted Thomas Hardy a few years earlier.
Expressing his views about who should paint Lionel Curtis's portrait, and strongly recommending Augustus John. Lawrence dismisses [Maurice] Greiffenhagen [who had died the previous year] as 'definitely a bad artist' pointing out that 'to get something more than a representation...you have to compromise between the likeness and the work of art...By going to John you get at least the most succinct and independent-minded artist's opinion of the sitter...I do not know if there is today a stronger-minded artist than John at work. But of course not even John can say beforehand what he will think or paint of any sitter. He generally flatters his men and debases his women - so I think'.
Lawrence offers to ask John about his fee, and in his postscript argues again in his favour, 'For myself I would rather possess (or be the subject of) a sketch by John than a finished study by any other painter now alive'.
In 1932 Lawrence was stationed at Hythe, on the Isle of Wight, on secondment to the RAF marine branch while, as he writes, 'testing motor boats'. Augustus John had made a number of portrait drawings of Lawrence, the first at the Peace Conference when he had also drawn Sherif Feisal, and at Lawrence's suggestion had painted Thomas Hardy a few years earlier.
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