Augustus John (142 page)

126
  George Popoff to John, 5 February 1935. NLW MS 22784D fol. 62.

127
  Robin John to the author, 13 January 1969.

128
  John to Villiers Bergne, 15 February 1945. NLW MS 22022C.

129
  Tom Burns
The Use of Memory
(1993), p. 17.

130
  Henry John to Augustus n.d. (May-June 1926). NLW MS 22782D fol. 39.

131
  Augustus to Gwen John, 18 November 1918. NLW MS 22305 fols. 122–4.

132
  Martin Cyril D’Arcy
Laughter and the Love of Friends
(ed.
William S. Abell 1991), pp. 36–41.

133
  Henry John to Augustus, 11 March 1926, from 67 via San Niccolò da Tolentino, Rome.

134
  Henry John to Augustus n.d. (
c.
March 1926). NLW MS 22782D fol. 37.

135
  See Selina Hastings
Evelyn Waugh. A Biography
(1994) p. 225.

136
  Martin Cyril D’Arcy
Laughter and the Love of Friends
pp. 41–2.

137
  Henry John to Augustus n.d. (April–June 1924). NLW MS 22782D fols. 35–6.

138
  Henry John to Augustus n.d. (July 1926), from Chalet des Mélèzes. NLW MS 22782D fols. 43–4.

139
  Tom Burns to Gwen John, 6 November 1927. NLW MS 22305D fol. 15.

140
  Henry John to Augustus, 26 July 1926. NLW MS 22782D fol. 44.

141
  More successful was John’s portrait of Martin D’Arcy painted in 1939, which is at Campion Hall, Oxford. ‘Genuinely alive and as enigmatic as he really is,’ D’Arcy’s friend Father B. C. Gurrin called it, though ‘it doesn’t seem to me to be very much like me’, Father D’Arcy wrote.

142
  Henry John to Augustus n.d. (
c.
1932). NLW MS 22782D fols. 50–4.

143
  James Strachey Barnes to John n.d. (
c.
1935). NLW MS 22779E fols. 50–2.

144
  Robert McAlmon and Kay Boyle
Being Geniuses Together
(revised edn 1970), p. 26.

145
  John to Father D’Arcy n.d.

146
  
Chiaroscuro
p. 212.

147
  Julia Strachey’s diary, 3 November 1934. This version was given to me by Julia Strachey. But for a slightly different version, see
Julia, A Portrait by Herself and Frances Partridge
(1983), p. 143.

148
  Harold Acton
Memoirs of an Aesthete
(1948), p. 146.

149
  ‘The Private Diaries of Evelyn Waugh’ (ed. Michael Davie),
Observer
magazine (6 May 1973), p. 28.

150
  John to Michel Salaman, 4 September 1935. NLW MS 14928D fol. 111.

151
  
Chiaroscuro
p. 213.

152
  
Daily Mail
(24 June 1935).

153
  Tom Burns
The Use of Memory
p. 21.

154
  
The Rev. Canon K. J. Woolcombe to the author, 24 December 1968.

155
  Father D’Arcy to John, 28 June 1935. NLW MS 22780E fol. 5.

156
  Augustus to Dorelia n.d.

157
  In an unrecorded BBC script.

158
  ‘I’m a miserable old crock now, unlikely to live to be undertaker to any more pals, but quite content to toddle about a shamelessly unkempt garden and enjoy the sound of my living waterfall and the ever changing view of Wild Boar Fell.’ Scott Macfie to John, 8 October 1932, from Shaws, Lunds, Sedburgh, Yorkshire.

159
  The words of this eulogium are given in Dora E. Yates
My Gypsy Days
(1953), pp. 119–20; also, in a slightly different form, in the
Daily Mirror
(23 November 1931).

160
  Dora Yates
My Gypsy Days
p. 120.

161
  
Ibid.
p. 121.

162
  Dora Yates to John, 22 November 1931, from Class Office Libraries, The University, Liverpool. NLW MS 22782D fols. 51–2.

163
  John to Dora Yates, 6 December 1936.

164
  
Chiaroscuro
pp. 89–90.

165
  Augustus to Gwen John, 23 June 1920. NLW MS 22305D fol. 133.

166
  See Cecily Langdale
Gwen John
(1987), p. 220. Letter written in 1919.

167
  
Ibid.

168
  Gwen John to Augustus, 1 and 8 September 1924. NLW MS 22782D fols. 31–2.

169
  Dorelia to Gwen John, May 1927. NLW MS 22308C fol. 21.

170
  Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt, 23 July 1927. NLW MS 21468D fols. 160–1.

171
  Augustus to Gwen John, 29 December 1924. NLW MS 22305D fol. 136.

172
  Gwen John to Augustus, 22 March (1925). NLW MS 22782D fol. 33.

173
  Gwen John to Augustus n.d. (1925). NLW MS 22782D fol. 34.

174
  Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt, 10 November 1925. NLW MS 21468D fols. 146–7. See also fols. 148–9.

175
  Susan Chitty
Gwen John
(1981), p. 173.

176
  Obituary of Gwen Smith,
The Times
(1 February 1958).

177
  Alison Thomas
Portraits of Women
(1994), p. 128.

178
  Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt, 23 July 1927. NLW MS 21468D fols. 160–1.

179
  
Ibid.

180
  Susan Chitty
Gwen John
p. 179.

181
  Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt, 15 September 1927. NLW MS 21468D fol. 164.

182
  Dorelia to Gwen John, 28 June 1928, 14 September 1928. NLW MS 22308C fols. 29–30.

183
  Dorelia to Gwen John, 11 January 1933. NLW MS 22308C fols. 47–8.

184
  Augustus to Gwen John, 16 April 1939. NLW MS 22305C fol. 147.

185
  Augustus to Gwen John, 21 June 1928. NLW MS 22305C fols. 144–5.

186
  Dorelia to Gwen John, 28 June 1928. NLW MS 22308C fol. 29.

187
  Augustus to Gwen John n.d. (October-November 1930). NLW MS 22395C fol. 146.

188
  Dorelia to Gwen John, 28 June 1928, 14 September 1928, 22 July 1929, 15 December 1930, n.d. (
c.
1932). NLW MS 22308C fols. 29–46.

189
  Dorelia to Gwen John, 11 January 1933. NLW MS 22308C fol. 47.

190
  Dorelia to Gwen John, 30 May 1939. NLW MS 22308C fol. 55. See also letter of 15 June 1939, fol. 56.

191
  
Chiaroscuro
p. 256.

CHAPTER XI: THINGS PAST

1
  
John to Mrs W. M. Cazalet, September 1939.

2
  John to Herbert Barker, 4 February 1938.

3
  Augustus to Edwin John, 22 August 1944. NLW MS 22312C fol. 53.

4
  
Daily Telegraph
(5 May 1948).

5
  
Listener
(13 May 1948), p. 794.

6
  Augustus to Caspar John, 14 April 1961. NLW MS 22775C fol. 50.

7
  John to Conger Goodyear, 10 January 1948.

8
  John to Conger Goodyear, 8 August 1949.

9
  John to T. W. Earp, 6 June 1944.

10
  John to Mrs W. M. Cazalet, 10 May 1943.

11
  John to Kit Adeane n.d.

12
  ‘Augustus John’, unpublished monograph by Alan Moorehead.

13
  Tom Pocock
Alan Moorehead
(1990), pp. 181–2.

14
  
Sunday Times
(22 July 1973), p. 34.

15
  John to Mavis Wheeler n.d.

16
  Shaw to John, 26 February 1944. See Alan Moorehead
Montgomery. A Biography
(1967), pp. 187–90. See also
Bernard Shaw Collected Letters
Volume 4
1926–1950
(ed. Dan H. Laurence 1988), pp. 700–1.

17
  Augustus to Edwin John, 23 February 1944 and 22 August 1944. NLW MS 22312C fols. 51 and 53.

18
  
Bernard Sham Collected Letters
Volume 4
1926–50
(ed. Dan H. Laurence 1988) pp. 700–1.

19
  Augustus to Simon John, 15 April 1944.

20
  John to Bernard Shaw, 29 February 1944. British Library Add. MS 50539 fol. 38.

21
  Augustus to Simon John, 14 September 1944.

22
  The painting is reproduced in Alan Moorehead’s
Montgomery. A Biography
, and a drawing, which was exhibited in May 1944 at the Royal Academy, is reproduced in Nigel Hamilton’s
Monty. Master of the Battlefield
(1983). Montgomery, Hamilton wrote, ‘never saw this fine crayon sketch – perhaps the only portrait ever to capture the ascetic missionary behind the soldier’s mask’ (see facing p. 544). There is a conversation piece drawn by James Gunn showing John painting Montgomery in the presence of Bernard Shaw. See Brian Montgomery
Monty. A Life in Photographs
(1985), p. 102. John’s oil portrait belongs to Glasgow University.

23
  Among John’s papers was a letter from Oscar Kokoschka thanking him for his attempts to help him escape from Prague.

24
  John to Leonard Russell, 31 September 1953. NLW MS 21570E.

25
  John to Dora Yates, 28 July 1936.

26
  Dora Yates to John, 25 November 1959. NLW MS 22787D fols. 102–3.

27
  
Ibid.

28
  John to Dora Yates, 29 November 1956.

29
  Dora Yates to John, 22 August 1952. NLW MS 22787D fol. 78.

30
  John to Dora Yates, 13 October 1953.

31
  John to Dora Yates, 30 June 1960.

32
  John to Dora Yates, 13 March 1946.

33
  John to Mrs W. M. Cazalet, 16 June 1941 and 26 September 1941.

34
  
Chips. The Diaries of Sir Henry Channon
(ed. Robert Rhodes James 1967), p. 389.

35
  Nancy Cunard
Grand Man
(1954), p. 195.

36
  John to Mary Keene, 26 January 1948.

37
  Augustus to Vivien John n.d.

38
  John to Winifred Shute, 21 June 1942.

39
  John to Winifred Shute, 18 October 1940.

40
  
John to Will and Alice Rothenstein, 15 June 1940.

41
  Kenneth Clark
The Other Half. A Self-Portrait
(1977), p. 1.

42
  
Country Life
(7 December 1940).

43
  
Burlington Magazine
(December 1940), p. 28.

44
  Augustus to Dorelia, 21 May 1942.

45
  ‘I am thoroughly in sympathy with your determination to remain a commoner in spite of antique conventions. May you win the battle!’ John to Anthony Wedgwood Benn, 16 March 1961.

46
  John to Sir Herbert Read, 18 January 1953. This letter is in the Collections Division of the University of Victoria, British Columbia. Some of the matters in which they diverged are given in a review Read wrote in the
Burlington Magazine
(December 1940, p. 28) where he criticized John’s tendency to idealize his types. ‘We must say “idealize” in preference to “romanticize” because one has only to compare such drawings with the superficially similar drawings of Picasso’s “blue” period to see that, while Picasso has a particular brand of romanticism (a Baudelairean romanticism), he never palliates the underlying drabness and horror. John’s gypsies are too coy, and they share this quality with his religious and allegorical figures… “Le dessin, c’est la probité de l’art” – Mr John quotes this saying of Ingres’ at the head of his catalogue, but it is a maxim with a double edge. In the sense that draughtsmanship is an index to the sensibility and skill of the artist, these drawings are a triumphant vindication; but the maxim might also mean that an artist’s drawings betray his limitations – the limitation of his interests no less than the degree of his skill. John is a typical studio artist, and there is little in his work to show that he has lived through one of the most momentous epochs of history. An artist creates his own epoch, it will perhaps be said, his own world of reality; and this is true enough. But surely that world, if it is to compete in interest with the external world, must be inhabited by figures somewhat more substantial than John’s appealing sylphs.’

About John’s portraits, however, Read admitted ‘there is no denying his superb mastery of this form… the pencil already prepares us for that balance out of psychological insight and formal harmony which his brush secures with such instinctive facility.’

47
  ‘Did I tell you about August[us] John, whom I duly tackled or rather sounded, weeks ago? He said lots of publishers had been at him. One offered him £10,000 [equivalent to £308,000 in 1996] in advance for his memoirs. He said, “Oh, that’s not enough: I want £20,000.” They rose to £13,000.’ T. E. Lawrence to Jonathan Cape (September 1932). See Michael Howard
Jonathan Cape, Publisher
(1971), p. 151.

48
  John to Cecil Gray, ‘Wednesday 1933’. British Library Add. MS 57785 fol. 72.

49
  Alfred Mclntyre of Little, Brown and Company to Jonathan Cape, 27 June 1938. The contract with Little, Brown, dated 26 July 1938, gave John an advance on royalties of $5,000 and provided for delivery of the manuscript by 1 January 1940. The Jonathan Cape contract, dated 2 May 1938, allowed John an advance of £2,000 (equivalent to £57,000 in 1996). Both advances were payable on the day of publication, and both contracts lapsed in 1940.

50
  M. S. Wilde of the British and International Press.

51
  Jonathan Cape to Alfred Mclntyre, 24 January 1940.

52
  Jonathan Cape to Alfred Mclntyre, 15 August 1940.

53
  February, Vol. III, No. 14, 1941, pp. 97–103; April, Vol III, No. 16, 1941, pp. 242–52; June, Vol. III, No. 18, 1941, pp. 394–402; August, Vol. IV, No. 20, 1941, pp. 121–30; October, Vol. IV, No. 22, 1941, pp. 285–92; February, Vol. V, No. 26, 1942, pp. 125–37; August, Vol. VI, No. 32, 1942, pp. 128–40; December, Vol. VI, No. 36, 1942, pp. 421–35; January, Vol. VII, No. 37, 1943, PP·59–66; August, Vol. VIII, No. 44, 1943, pp. 136–43; December,
Vol. VIII, No. 48, 1943, pp. 405–19; August, Vol. X, No. 56, 1944, 128–46; April, Vol. XI, No. 64, 1945, pp. 242–61; December, Vol. XII, No. 72, 1945, pp. 417–30; January, Vol. XIII, No.73, 1948, pp. 49–61; October, Vol. XIV, No. 82, 1946, pp. 224–31; June, Vol. XVII, No. 102, 1948, pp. 430–41; April, Vol. XIX, No. 112, 1949, pp. 292–303.