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Lot Essay
John met his second partner, Dorelia McNeill, in 1903. 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. 148-49).
The present work is one of several full length portraits executed on an impressive scale and can be compared to The Smiling Woman 1909 (Tate Britain) and Dorelia standing before a fence circa 1903-04, (private collection). The Smiling Woman, which was presented to the Tate Gallery by the Contemporary Art Society in 1917, depicts Dorelia in a green headdress and long red dress, perhaps the same dress that she wears in the present painting. In both, John has concentrated the focus on the face and hands, while the clothing and backgrounds have been painted with broad, sweeping strokes of paint.
Dorelia in a red dress has been dated to circa 1906, which was the year after Pyramus, Dorelia's first child by John was born. Their second son, Romily was born in 1906. As Dorelia is clutching the front of her dress, it has been suggested that she was pregnant while sitting for this portrait.
Two drawings depicting Dorelia will be offered in the sale of British Art on Paper at Christie's, London, on 5 June 2003, lots 196 and 197.
The present work is one of several full length portraits executed on an impressive scale and can be compared to The Smiling Woman 1909 (Tate Britain) and Dorelia standing before a fence circa 1903-04, (private collection). The Smiling Woman, which was presented to the Tate Gallery by the Contemporary Art Society in 1917, depicts Dorelia in a green headdress and long red dress, perhaps the same dress that she wears in the present painting. In both, John has concentrated the focus on the face and hands, while the clothing and backgrounds have been painted with broad, sweeping strokes of paint.
Dorelia in a red dress has been dated to circa 1906, which was the year after Pyramus, Dorelia's first child by John was born. Their second son, Romily was born in 1906. As Dorelia is clutching the front of her dress, it has been suggested that she was pregnant while sitting for this portrait.
Two drawings depicting Dorelia will be offered in the sale of British Art on Paper at Christie's, London, on 5 June 2003, lots 196 and 197.