The granddaughter of Augustus John, Britain’s most famous and successful artist of the early 20th century, has delivered a damning critique of his later works. Rebecca John, the leading authority on the artist, says in her first interview for two decades that “most should have been burned. My grandfather went down the drain from the 1930s onwards, drank too much, lost his judgment, and took every opportunity to earn money from portraits of society ladies and the wives of notable men”.
From about 1900, Augustus John had produced beautiful drawings, stunning landscapes and portraits of great men including TE Lawrence, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw and Thomas Hardy. He was even honoured in 1928 with a cover photo for Time magazine. But those artistic skills declined from the mid-1930s until his death aged 83 in 1961.
