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Lot Essay
Augustus John had been at the Slade for nearly a year when Gwen joined him in 1897 and rapidly became part of the circle of talented friends which included Ida Nettleship, Edna Waugh, Ambrose McEvoy, Michel and Louise Salaman and Ursula Tyrwhitt. They all drew one another or were drawn and the present work, circa 1900 by Augustus of his older sister is a tantalising early drawing of one artist by the other with Gwen seated in a pose which she was to use in some of her most iconic works. Part of the Slade School training was the study of French 18th Century drawing, the students copying drawings by Watteau and others as part of a competition. Augustus won the competition and the delicate shading of the present work is an indication of the consummate draftsmanship with which his later work is identified.
Whilst in London they lived together at 21 Fitzroy Street, which may well be the setting for the present work. A similar fireplace, with a skull resting on the mantelpiece, can be seen in Portrait of Mrs Atkinson, circa 1897-8, (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) by Gwen John. Gwen John's only known portrait of her brother, a pencil drawing of a group of her friends including Augustus, Rosa Waugh, Winifred John and Michel Salaman, was executed at the same time and features the same interior setting.
Having shared rooms and lodging houses together in London and visited Paris in the early years of the 20th Century, the siblings lives and styles were to move in very different directions, the present finely wrought drawing being an insight to the time they shared as students.
The present work was given to Michel Salaman shortly after their time together at the Slade. Another drawing from this period Ida Nettleship, Gwen John and Ursula Tyrwhitt, also from the Salaman collection, was sold Christie's, London, 13 March 1981, lot 53.
Whilst in London they lived together at 21 Fitzroy Street, which may well be the setting for the present work. A similar fireplace, with a skull resting on the mantelpiece, can be seen in Portrait of Mrs Atkinson, circa 1897-8, (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York) by Gwen John. Gwen John's only known portrait of her brother, a pencil drawing of a group of her friends including Augustus, Rosa Waugh, Winifred John and Michel Salaman, was executed at the same time and features the same interior setting.
Having shared rooms and lodging houses together in London and visited Paris in the early years of the 20th Century, the siblings lives and styles were to move in very different directions, the present finely wrought drawing being an insight to the time they shared as students.
The present work was given to Michel Salaman shortly after their time together at the Slade. Another drawing from this period Ida Nettleship, Gwen John and Ursula Tyrwhitt, also from the Salaman collection, was sold Christie's, London, 13 March 1981, lot 53.