Signed l.r.: John and numbered 89

Pen and ink and pencil

The present drawing has been dated to c.1910-11, when John was producing much of his most inspired work as a draughtsman. Rebecca John has suggested the model could be Euphemia Lamb or Edith Lees. Both women, who married to two of John’s closest artist friends, were modelling regularly for him at this date.

I am grateful to Rebecca John for her help in researching this drawing.

Signed l.l.: John

Watercolour over pencil, 14 by 10 ½ ins (35.5 by 26.5 cm)

Provenance: The Piccadilly Gallery, London

The present watercolour is a study for the left and right figures for one of John’s important early allegorical works, “Le Pays des Cavernes Miraculeuse” of 1909. The right-hand figure is that of John’s first wife Ida Nettleship who had died in 1907. John was deeply effected by Ida’s death and her image remained etched in his memory appearing in a number of further allegorical works of the following years, including his great and closely-related oil painting “The Way down to the Sea” of 1909-11. It is also likely that Ida influenced the subject of this work, which Rebecca John has suggested may be a fantasy of an ideal world that she had spoken of to John during her lifetime.

Brush and blue-black ink over pen and ink

Provenance: Agnews; Evelyn and Tress