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Lot Essay
Augustus John drew and painted his wife, Dorothy 'Dorelia', many times. In fact his principal models often comprised his close family: Ida (his first wife), and his many children including David, Caspar, Robin, Edwin, Pyramus and Romilly.
John first met Dorelia McNeill early in 1903. She was taking evening classes at the Westminster School of Art whilst working in a lawyer's office. Michael Holroyd comments, 'She was, of course, hypnotically beautiful - almost embarrassingly so, Will Rothenstein found: 'one could not take one's eyes off her ... In his portraiture, Augustus was like a stage director, assigning his subjects all sorts of short dramatic roles. Dorelia, it seemed, acquiesced in them, fitted each of them to perfection - mother, mistress, little girl, phantasm, goddess, seductress, wife. She became all things to him; she was everywoman' (see M. Holroyd, Augustus John a biography Volume I The Years of Innocence, London, 1974, pp. 148-9).
Her impact on John was immediate, by the summer of 1903 he was writing her passionate letters, 'The smell of you is in my nostrils and it will never go and I am sick for love of you. What are the great beneficent influences I owe a million thanks to who have brought you in my way, Ardor my little girl, my love, my spouse whose smile opens infinite vistas to me, enlarges, intensifies existence like a strain of music. I want to look long and solemnly at you. I want to hear you laugh and sigh' (see M. Holroyd, Augustus John, London 1996, p. 129).
Talitha Pol was the second wife of the late Sir Paul Getty. She was the daughter of Poppet Pol, the elder daughter of Dorelia and Augustus John.
John first met Dorelia McNeill early in 1903. She was taking evening classes at the Westminster School of Art whilst working in a lawyer's office. Michael Holroyd comments, 'She was, of course, hypnotically beautiful - almost embarrassingly so, Will Rothenstein found: 'one could not take one's eyes off her ... In his portraiture, Augustus was like a stage director, assigning his subjects all sorts of short dramatic roles. Dorelia, it seemed, acquiesced in them, fitted each of them to perfection - mother, mistress, little girl, phantasm, goddess, seductress, wife. She became all things to him; she was everywoman' (see M. Holroyd, Augustus John a biography Volume I The Years of Innocence, London, 1974, pp. 148-9).
Her impact on John was immediate, by the summer of 1903 he was writing her passionate letters, 'The smell of you is in my nostrils and it will never go and I am sick for love of you. What are the great beneficent influences I owe a million thanks to who have brought you in my way, Ardor my little girl, my love, my spouse whose smile opens infinite vistas to me, enlarges, intensifies existence like a strain of music. I want to look long and solemnly at you. I want to hear you laugh and sigh' (see M. Holroyd, Augustus John, London 1996, p. 129).
Talitha Pol was the second wife of the late Sir Paul Getty. She was the daughter of Poppet Pol, the elder daughter of Dorelia and Augustus John.