A Sketchbook comprising fifty-eight pages of drawings in pencil, black and coloured crayons, including several studies for the Portrait of W. Somerset Maugham and the Vine Pergola series

'The portrait of W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) was Sutherland's first commissioned portrait and came about after the artist met the novelist while staying at St-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. At that time Sutherland told a mutual friend that if he were ever to paint a portrait, Maugham would be the kind of person he would like to paint. Sometime later, Somerset Maugham wrote to Sutherland and asked him to paint him and although Sutherland refused at first, he finally relented. Work commenced on 17 February 1949 and Maugham gave the artist ten sittings of one hour a day which Sutherland devoted to drawing. The portrait was then worked on in the studio and was completed in June. Maugham considered the finished work to be 'magnificent'' (see R. Alley, Graham Sutherland, Tate Gallery Exhibition Catalogue, 1982, pp.135-36). The finished work is in the collection of the Tate Gallery, London.