Augustus John OM

An Old Lady

1898–9

© The estate of Augustus John. All Rights Reserved 2019 / Bridgeman Images

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On loan

The Salisbury Museum (Salisbury, UK): Augustus John

Artist: Augustus John OM 1878–1961
Medium: Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions: Support: 686 x 558 mm
frame: 770 x 640 x 58 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Purchased 1941
Reference: N05259

Catalogue entry

N05259 AN OLD LADY 1899

Not inscribed.
Canvas, 26 3/4×22 (68×56).
Purchased from the Leger Galleries (Knapping Fund) 1941.
Coll: Arthur Clifton; Mrs Clifton, who sold it to Agnew's; Leger Galleries.
Lit: John, 1952, p.147.
Repr: Rothenstein, 1944, pl.4; Allan Gwynne-Jones, Portrait Painters, 1950, pl.133.

This portrait, at different times known as ‘John's Aunt’, ‘John's Mother’ and ‘John's Grandmother’, was John's first commission in portraiture. The fee was fixed at forty pounds, half of which was paid in advance. Because John got bored with his subject and because the old lady became restless the artist left it unfinished and the lady got her portrait for half price. The artist could not remember the name of the subject, and Mrs Clifton, who had the picture in her possession for many years, thinks that the title ‘John's Landlady’ would be more correct.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I