AUGUSTUS JOHN British / Welsh, 1878-1961 The Tent on the Moor etching Etching depicting a woman and child sheltering beneath a large draped tent set against an open moorland landscape. Rendered in bold, the composition captures a tender, intimate moment between mother and child amid a rugged outdoor setting, with rolling hills and scrubby vegetation sketched loosely in the background. The plate is signed within the image, and the sheet bears a pencil signature, "Augustus John," in the lower margin. Framed. Not examined out of frame. Plate: 2.5 x 3 inches; frame: 10 x 9 inches $120-150
ARTIST PROFILE: Augustus John (British/Welsh, 1878–1961): Born in Tenby, Pembrokeshire, John studied at the Slade School of Art in London, where he became recognized as the most talented draughtsman of his generation, even before graduating, and for a time was considered the most important artist at work in Britain, with Virginia Woolf remarking that by 1908 "the age of Augustus John was dawning." Influenced by masters like Rembrandt, he developed a distinctive style of powerful, sensitive portrayals of both the affluent and the marginalized, including the Roma community, which became a lifelong interest reflected in his etchings and paintings, and he later became president of the Gypsy Lore Society. His most significant portraits include those of novelist James Joyce, playwright George Bernard Shaw, cellist Guilhermina Suggia, and poets Dylan Thomas and William Butler Yeats, and he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1921 and a full Royal Academician in 1928, and was named to the Order of Merit by King George VI in 1942. Known equally for his flamboyant bohemian lifestyle as for his brilliant draftsmanship, he died at Fordingbridge, Hampshire, in 1961 at the age of 83.
