Augustus John, R.A.

Francis Taylor, from whom acquired by Mrs Millicent Rogers circa 1950

Her Estate sale, Charlton Hall, West Columbia, The Millicent Rogers Collection, 22 February 2018, lot 152

Private Collection, UK

Augustus John was at his best with a pencil or stick of charcoal and never better still than when drawing those women who formed his close circle and who were his constant inspiration: his sister Gwen (who John himself said, with no little dignity, would outshine him eventually); Ida, his wife; his regular sitters such as Alick Schepeler or Edith Lees and, above all others, Dorothy McNeill - known to us simply as Dorelia. Unseen in public for many years, the present drawing has recently re-emerged from the collection of Millicent Rogers and identified as Dorelia thanks to an old photograph in the artist's archive detailing both sitter and buyer on the reverse.

John first met Dorothy in the winter of 1902-3. As David Fraser Jenkins writes, ‘It is not clear which attachment came first, but [Dorothy]…remembered noticing Augustus at the private view of an exhibition, and desiring him, as if it was her destiny’ (David Fraser Jenkins and Chris Stephens (eds), Gwen John and Augustus John, Tate Publishing, London, 2004, p.17). In 1904, Dorelia moved into John’s household forming a very modern ménage à trois with Ida and became the subject of many of his most successful drawings – his portraits of his new muse are often so different that they almost appear to be of completely different women, so intently does he try to pin-point the exact emotional impact she had upon him, from moment to moment, through subtle distortions of her features. Yet he always returns to the same points – her large, wide eyes (here looking down in contemplation); her soft chin and the vertiginous sweep of her hair – that make these images ineffably ‘Dorelia’. 

This drawing was for many years in the collection of Millicent Rogers (1902 – 1953), grand-daughter of the Standard Oil tycoon Henry Huttleston Rogers and an American socialite, fashion muse, jewellery designer and art collector. She became a strong supporter of Native American culture and put together a wonderful collection of Native American art and design which now forms the basis of the Millicent Rogers Museum in Taos, New Mexico.