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Lot Essay
Following the death of his first wife, Ida Nettleship, in March 1907, Augustus John travelled from Paris to spend the summer with Dorelia at Equihen, a small fishing village near Boulogne. From this stay John produced a series of brilliant pencil studies, perhaps his best, of single figures of the local fishergirls. In each drawing the girls are elegantly posed, their faces sensitively shaded, highlighting the delicate undulations of their features.
John was fascinated by the costume and culture of these 'primitive' people, reminding him of his Pembrokeshire childhood. In his Autobiography he wrote p. 326: 'With the rise of a new bourgeoisie, flourishing on the principles of self-help, child-torture and mass enslavement, all manifestations of the folk-spirit were frowned upon as vulgar and un-Christian: the old songs and dances were gradually forgotten, and the hereditary costumes folded and put away to be replaced by the shoddy products of the factory: and now that the country crafts have gone too, there is not much joy left in the land. The genius loci has become a disreputable character, interesting only to the policeman.'
John was fascinated by the costume and culture of these 'primitive' people, reminding him of his Pembrokeshire childhood. In his Autobiography he wrote p. 326: 'With the rise of a new bourgeoisie, flourishing on the principles of self-help, child-torture and mass enslavement, all manifestations of the folk-spirit were frowned upon as vulgar and un-Christian: the old songs and dances were gradually forgotten, and the hereditary costumes folded and put away to be replaced by the shoddy products of the factory: and now that the country crafts have gone too, there is not much joy left in the land. The genius loci has become a disreputable character, interesting only to the policeman.'