AUGUSTUS JOHN, O.M., R.A., 1878 - 1961, FROM THE COLLECTION ...

Estimate

£5,000 - £7,000

AUGUSTUS JOHN, O.M., R.A., 1878 - 1961, FROM THE COLLECTION OF DAME ELIZABETH TAYLOR, TWO PEN AND INK NUDE STUDIES, CIRCA 1900/1905.
Both mounted to card, one signed middle right, inscribed verso in pencil ‘Property of Sarah Taylor #42’, and ‘Property of Sarah Taylor #43’ (Sarah Taylor was the mother of Elizabeth Taylor).
(46cm x 30.4cm)

Provenance: From the collection of Dame Elizabeth Taylor, 1932 - 2011, Private Collection, London

N.B. It is thought the sitter in these two powerful sketches is Ida Nettleship, 1877 - 1907, an art student at the Slade School of Art who also studied under James McNeil Whistler at the Academie Carmen in Paris. Whilst in Paris Ida shared a flat with Gwen John before returning to her studies in London. Towards the end of her time at the Slade, she met Augustus John and they married in January, 1901.

Between 1903 and 1907, she lived together in a menage a trois with Augustus and his lover Dorelia McNeill. Ida died in Paris in 1907 soon after the birth of her 5th son, Henry and her children with Augustus John were subsequently brought up by Dorelia.

The Hollywood screen legend Elizabeth Taylor was born in the house that Augustus John owned in Hampstead, London. Her father, Francis Taylor, was an American art dealer and agent to Augustus John until the Taylor family moved to California in the autumn of 1939 just before the outbreak of WWII

Further background on the drawings is contained in the attached letters from Dame Elizabeth, and Augustus John.

‘Francis Taylor is selling all my beloved drawings & things away (many of which I tore up by-the-bye in a fit of madness, but he has pieced them together again!’

Letter from Augustus John at Fryern Court, to Mrs Cazelet, dated September 23rd, 1939