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Lot Essay
We are very grateful to Frances Spalding for her assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.
The present drawing has historically been identified as a self-portrait, and although Minton's features are more slight than those of this sitter, the following description of Minton echoes this sitter's features: 'The scarecrow figure with its loping, fevered stride, head down, chin stuck into chest, every fibre intent on getting wherever he was bound; the lantern face under the shock of hair, its extraordinary gravity in repose and its total re-creation in gaiety; the exuberant clowning into which was channeled, increasingly and defensively, a perpetual crackle of nervous energy' (Michael Middleton, exhibition catalogue, John Minton 1917-1957, London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1958, p. 4).
The present drawing has historically been identified as a self-portrait, and although Minton's features are more slight than those of this sitter, the following description of Minton echoes this sitter's features: 'The scarecrow figure with its loping, fevered stride, head down, chin stuck into chest, every fibre intent on getting wherever he was bound; the lantern face under the shock of hair, its extraordinary gravity in repose and its total re-creation in gaiety; the exuberant clowning into which was channeled, increasingly and defensively, a perpetual crackle of nervous energy' (Michael Middleton, exhibition catalogue, John Minton 1917-1957, London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1958, p. 4).