Augustus John OM

Catalogue entry

N03886 GOSSIPING WOMEN c. 1907
 
Inscr. ‘John’ b.r.
Pencil and watercolour, 13 1/2×10 1/2 (34×27); the original sheet of paper was stuck to a larger piece of paper in order to increase the area at the bottom of the drawing: total size of paper, 19 1/2×14 (50×35·5).
Purchased from Horace de Vere Cole (Duveen Drawings Fund) 1924.
Exh: (?) Carfax Gallery, November 1907 (19. as ‘The Old Woman and the Fishergirls’, or 22, ‘The Old Woman's Advice’).
Lit: John, 1952, pp.70–1.
Repr: V. & A., Twentieth Century British Water-colours, 1958, pl.3.

John wrote (loc. cit.): ‘Two Summers spent at Equihen near Boulogne were productive of numerous studies of fisher-folk, who, with their distinctive costumes, made admirable models.’ This is one of those studies and was most likely exhibited at the Carfax Gallery in 1907, when many Equihen pictures were shown.

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

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