Augustus Edwin John
Augustus Edwin John was a Welsh painter born in 1878. Along with his older sister Gwen John, he attended the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 1894 where he became the pupil of British draughtsman and painter Henry Tonks. Praised for his skilful and remarkable drawing techniques, Johns career took a new turn after enduring a head injury while diving into the sea, his works embracing a more spontaneous spirit and vibrant impulse. John was a bohemian artist whose influences were drawn from gypsy culture and Romani traditions. He spent time travelling in different countries like Ireland where he became friend with William Orpen and numerous other Irish artists like Robert Gregory. By the 1920s, his reputation as a well-established draughtsman was bolstered by the portraits he realized for renowned figures like George Bernard Shaw, W. B Yeats and T. E Lawrence. A leading portraitist, John was praised for capturing the emotions and feelings of each one of his subjects by using an oil sketching technique straight onto canvas. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1921 and considered a key figure of the New English Art Club throughout his career. In 1948, he became President of the Royal Society of Portraits Painters in London. The artist died in 1961 and is today exhibited internationally.
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'GALWAY FOLK'
- Price Realised: 6,500
- Sale: 29 November 2005
- pen and brown ink wash on paper
- 44 by 25cm., 17.5 by 9.75in.
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'SELF PORTRAIT'
- Price Realised: 3,000
- Sale: 18 February 2003
- red chalk on paper
- 19 by 30cm., 7.5 by 12in.
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'PORTRAIT OF WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, FOURTH STATE, 1907'
- Price Realised: 2,000
- Sale: 27 May 2019
- etching; (no. 35 from an edition of 50)
- 6Ύ x 5in. (17.15 x 12.70cm)
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'SEATED FEMALE NUDE'
- Price Realised: 1,206
- Sale: 09 October 2001
- pencil
- 30 by 38cm., 12 by 15in.
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'PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG GIRL'
- Price Realised: 80
- Sale: 18 October 2021
- 17 x 13½in. (43.18 x 34.29cm)