Augustus John(1878-1961): Self-portrait (1955)

John achieved rapid fame at the Slade School of Art as the most gifted draughtsman of his generation. He exhibited briefly with Sickert's Camden Town Group, became an official war artist during World War I and was in much demand as a portrait painter. A flamboyant bohemian character with dashing looks, he adopted a gypsy lifestyle and travelled about in caravans with his large family. This defiant self-portrait lithograph was done when the artist was seventy seven.

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