Catalogue entry
N05097 THE LITTLE RAILWAY, MARTIGUES 1928
Inscr. ‘John’ b.l.
Canvas, 18 1/2×21 1/2 (46×55).
Bequeathed by Lady Henry Cavendish-Bentinck 1940.
Coll: Purchased by Lord Henry Cavendish-Bentinck from Arthur Tooth & Sons 1929.
Exh: Arthur Tooth & Sons, April–May 1929 (7 or 23: ‘The Little Railway Martigues’ 1 and 11); Temple Newsam, Leeds, July–August 1946 (48).
Lit: T. W. Earp, ‘The Recent Work of Augustus John’ in Studio, XCVII, 1929, pp.231–2; John, 1952, pp.104–8, 257–64.
Repr: Apollo, IX, 1929, p.203; Rothenstein, 1944, pl.87.
Martigues, a little town in Provence, is situated half-way between Arles and Marseilles. John tells us that Provence ‘had been for years the goal of my dreams’ and Martigues was, of all the towns there, the one for which he had most affection. John travelled round Provence in search of the ideal place: ‘With a feeling that I was going to find what I was seeking, an anchorage at last, I returned from Marseilles, and, changing at Pas des Lanciers, took the little railway which leads to Martigues. On arriving my premonition proved correct: there was no need to seek further… (read more)
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