Room 1
John Minton 1952
John Minton was a painter and illustrator who taught at the Royal College of Art, where he advocated the tradition
of figure painting, although by the early 1950s, when this portrait was painted, his work had become unfashionable.
He is probably now best remembered for his illustrations to Elizabeth David's Mediterranean Food.
Minton commissioned this portrait from Freud in 1952, after he had seen Freud's portrait of Francis Bacon.
His face seems full of regret, and the painting of his eyes suggests deep unhappiness.
Minton committed suicide in 1957; he bequeathed this portrait to the Royal College of Art. |
