John Craxton, R.A. (b. 1922)

At the suggestion of the art patron, Peter Watson, Craxton shared a studio with fellow artist Lucian Freud in Abercorn Place, where they both worked from 1942 until 1944. Although their work took very different directions there were some stylistic similarities apparent at this time. Craxton has said, 'We did life drawing at Goldsmith's College, and we both decided - I suppose it was due to Picasso - that we were both going to put one line down. The common way to draw was to stroke the side of the nude with about 25 lines, and your eye picked out the one that was the right one. We thought that was a cop-out. Our shading was done with dots, and of course we got lots of remarks like "How's the measles?"' (see M. Gayford, 'John Craxton at Seventy', Modern Painters, 5, 1992, p. 63).