FOR AUCKLAND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 170, 20 July 1928, Page 7

FOR AUCKLAND.

Four Pictures From Myers Estate. AUGUSTUS JOHN PORTRAIT. Australian Press Assn.—United Service.) (Received 12.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 19. Mr. Leo Myers, trustee for the late Sir Arthur Myers' estate, has bought lor the Auckland Art Gallery four pictures of a total value of over £2000. They include a portrait study by Augustus John. The purchases were made in association with Sir James Parr and Mr. John Barr, director of Auckland Art Gallery and city librarian.

Augustus (Edwyn) John, the British artist, was born at Tenby in January, 1879. He studied art at the Slade School, London, and in Paris, and later spent some time in Provence. He exhibited regularly at the New English Art Club, and from 1901 to 1902 was teacher of art at Liverpool University. He soon became prominent as a powerful and highly original draughtsman and painter, with a fine sense of desijpi. Between 1901 and 1910 he devoted special attention to etching and in that medium produced important works, including portraits, single figures, and groups. He prefers figure subjects, and uses small plates- During the war. he held a commission as official artist in the Canadian Corps, and at the Canadian War Memorial Exhibition in 1919 showed a cartoon for la large decoration, "Canadians opposite Lens." He was later commissioned by the British Government to paint the chief participants in the Peace Conference. He is not, like Sargent, a painter of society women, but prefers to depict striking characters. The artist, whose influence on modern art has been very great, is represented in the Tate Gallery by several pie-, tures, and his work is also shown in the print room at the British Museum. His earliest pictures, with their definite contour, enclosing areas of colour relate him to the Quattrocento Italian School. Distortion for the purpose of emphasis and decorative effect is another marked characteristic. He refused nomination to the Royal Academy till April, 1921, when "forswearing the determination of a lifetime," he was elected an associate. He is President of the Natal Portrait Society, and a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy.