A study for the second portrait of the poet, T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), painted in 1949. Lewis' first portrait had been painted in 1938 and its rejection by the Royal Academy created a controversy among fellow artists and the British press; Augustus John resigned from the Royal Academy for two years in protest. The sitter however had greatly admired it as he believed that it captured his mind and his art. It was later purchased by the Municipal Art Gallery in Durban, South Africa. The finished second portrait is in the collection of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge
(see J. Meyers, The Enemy A Biography of Wyndham Lewis, London, 1980, pp.236-241, 275)