Authors: Michael Holroyd
84
The Burlington Magazine
No. 475 (October 1942), p. 237.
85
Gwen John,
Exhibition Catalogue, Arts Council, 1968. Introduction by Mary Taubman.
86
Ida John to Gwen John n.d. (1903). NLW MS 22307C.
87
Ida John to Gwen John (August 1903). NLW MS 22307C fols. 8–16.
88
Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt, 3 September 1903. NLW MS 21468D fols. 2–6.
89
Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt n.d. (late 1903). NLW MS 21468D fols. 7–8.
90
Augustus John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (October 1903). NLW MS 22776D fol. 19.
91
In an undated letter to Mrs Hugh Hammersley.
92
Edna Clarke Hall’s unpublished diary for 1898. Quoted in Alison Thomas
Portraits of Women
p. 62.
93
Ida John to Mary Dowdall (the Rani), March 1903.
94
Edna Clarke Hall to Ida John. Quoted in Alison Thomas
Portraits of Women
p. 85.
95
Augustus John to Michel Salaman n.d. (late 1902). NLW MS 14928D fol. 67.
96
Alison Thomas
Portraits of Women
p. 86.
97
Augustus John to Gwen John n.d. (autumn 1903). NLW MS 22311D fol. 135.
98
Ida John to Gwen John n.d. (late December 1903). NLW MS 22397C fols. 19–20.
99
Ida John to Winifred John n.d. (spring 1904). NLW MS 22311D fols. 138–9.
100
Augustus John to John Sampson n.d. (late 1904). NLW MS 21459E fol. 12.
101
Ida John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (autumn 1903). NLW MS 22311D fols. 136–7.
102
Ida John to Gwen John and Dorelia McNeill n.d. (spring 1904). NLW MS 22207C fols. 21–2.
103
Ida and Augustus John to Gwen John and Dorelia McNeill, December 1903. NLW MS 22307C fols. 17–18.
104
In May 1904 Lady Gregory sent Augustus a copy of her
Poets and Dreamers
, an ‘astonishing book’, he called it. In a letter to Lady Gregory (25 May 1904) he wrote: ‘Mr John Sampson of Liverpool know[s] more than any man about the Tinkers. He has collected a considerable vocabulary of their words besides tales and rhymes, and was the first to solve the mystery of their language and its origins. I have only known some English Tinkers whose language is but a debased and impoverished derivative of the Irish Tinkers‘…If you would care I would willingly send you the hundred words or so I know of English Shelta but I feel it is the richer Irish dialect you ought to come across and Mr Sampson is its custodian.’ Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
105
Augustus John to Gwen John, 28 March 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols. 96–8.
106
Ida and Augustus to Gwen and Dorelia, December 1903. NLW MS 22307C fol. 18. Essex County Council has placed a commemorative plaque on Elm House.
107
Augustus John to John Sampson n.d. (1903). NLW MS 21459E fol. 7.
108
Dorelia to John Rothenstein (19 January 1951). See
Modern English Painters
(1976 edn), ‘Sickert to Grant’, p. 187.
109
‘Dorelia by Lamplight at Toulouse’ (privately owned); ‘The Student’ (City of Manchester Art Gallery); and ‘Dorelia in a Black Dress’ (Tate Gallery, 5910).
110
Ida John to Gwen John n.d. and 24 August 1903. NLW MS 22307C fols. 8–16.
111
Augustus John to Gwen John, 28 March 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols.96–8.
112
Augustus John to Gwen John, 28 March 1904. NLW MS 22305D. fols. 96–8.
113
Dorelia’s words, spoken to the author, while describing this time.
114
Ida John to Gwen John and Dorelia McNeill n.d. (spring 1904). NLW MS 22397C fols. 21–2.
115
Augustus John to Gwen John, 28 March 1904 and 16 May 1904. NLW MS 22395D fols. 96–101.
116
Dorelia to the author, 3 July 1969.
117
Ida John to Gwen John n.d. (May/June 1904). NLW MS 22307C fol. 23.
118
Ibid.
119
Gwen to Dorelia n.d. (May/June 1904). NLW MS 22789D fols. 58–9.
120
Dorelia McNeill to Gwen John n.d. (May/June 1904). NLW MS 22308C fols. 9–10.
121
Ibid.
122
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (May/June 1904). NLW MS 22789D fols. 60–1.
123
Leonard to Gwen John n.d. (June/July 1904). NLW MS 22305C.
124
‘Love seeketh not itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell’s despair.’
So sang a little Clod of Clay,
Trodden with the cattle’s feet,
But a Pebble of the brook
Warbled out these metres meet:
‘Love seeketh only Self to please,
To bind another to its delight,
Joys in another’s loss of ease,
And builds a Hell in Heaven’s despite.’
125
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (July 1904). NLW MS 22799D fol. 35.
126
‘Miss Dorelia Ardor, Pirini, I must keep writing,’ he wrote from La Place Verte in Antwerp. ‘You have not written to me yet. Do you not believe you are precious to me, invaluable one! I am alone and what can I do but think, and thoughts of all sorts come to me. I know if I don’t hear from you tomorrow I will come to find you again. I can always claim you; I will have you for myself… I have tears of love for you and yet I am not drunk. Sweet I have met you on the high-way and I have recognised you and kissed you and you have fled into the woods and I have followed you at last and found you again. My girl, my sweet friend whom I love so much can you withhold your lips your eyes and your heart and your mind from me your lover – he who will take no denial – no denial. No denial is valid with him henceforth. It is useless – my lady, Sibyl, Dryad, form without circumference, incomprehensible simplicity, earth and air –
‘Ardor McNeill, it is you I love – Gustavus.’ NLW MS 22776D fols. 29–30.
127
Ibid.
128
Augustus John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (July 1904). NLW MS 22776D fols. 32–3.
129
Augustus John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (July 1904). NLW MS 22776D fol. 34.
130
Dorelia McNeill to Gwen John, 1 August 1904. NLW MS 22308C fol. 11.
131
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (September 1904). NLW MS 22789D fol. 62.
132
Augustus John to Gwen John, 28 March 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols. 96–8.
133
Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt n.d. NLW MS 21468D fol. 15.
134
Augustus John to Gwen John, 28 March 1904; September 1904. NLW MS 22305 fols. 96–8, 106.
135
Augustus John to Gwen John, 29 August 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols. 104–5.
136
Augustus John to Gwen John, September 1904; 24 October 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols. 106, 109.
137
Gwen John to Auguste Rodin n.d. Musée Rodin, Paris. See Cecily Langdale
Gwen John
(1987), p. 28.
138
NLW MS 22393C fols. 4–5. See Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan
Gwen John. Papers at the National Library of Wales
p. 9. The passage has been translated from the French by Ceridwen Lloyd-Morgan.
139
Winifred John to Gwen John n.d. (1903/4). NLW MS 22307C fols. 116–17.
140
Winifred John to Gwen John n.d. (1905). NLW MS 22307C fol. 118.
141
Winifred John to Gwen John, 10 July 1910. NLW MS 22307C fols. 119–23.
142
Auguste Rodin to Gwen John, 14 September 1907. Quoted in Cecile Langdale
Gwen John
p. 33.
143
Quoted in Susan Chitty
Gwen John
p. 70.
144
Ibid.
p. 121.
145
Gwen John Memorial Exhibition,
Catalogue, Matthieson Ltd, 1946, p. 4.
146
Gwen John to Michel Salaman, 17 January 1926. NLW MS 14930C.
147
Mary Taubman
Gwen John
p. 25.
148
Augustus John to Gwen John, 29 August 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols. 104–5.
149
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill, August 1904. NLW MS 22155B fols. 1–2.
150
Augustus John to Gwen John n.d. (autumn 1903). NLW MS 22311D fol. 135.
151
Augustus John to Gwen John, September 1904. NLW MS 22305D fol. 106.
152
Ida John to Gwen John n.d. (summer 1904). NLW MS 22207C fol. 24.
153
Augustus John to Gwen John, 29 August 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols. 104–5.
154
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill, August 1904. NLW MS 22155B fols. 1–2.
155
Augustus John to Gwen John, 29 August 1904. NLW MS 22305D fols. 104–5.
156
Ida John to Gwen John n.d. (summer 1904). NLW MS 22207C fol. 24.
157
Ida John to Gwen John, 21 September 1904. NLW MS 22207C fol. 28.
158
Ibid.
159
Ibid.
160
Ida John to Gwen John, 29 September 1904. NLW MS 22207C fols. 29–31.
161
Augustus John to Will Rothenstein n.d. (September 1904).
162
Ibid.
163
Entry for 26 February 1968 in
The Diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner
(ed. Claire Harman) p. 318.
164
Gwen John to Ursula Tyrwhitt, 21 December 1910. NLW MS 21468D fol. 15.
CHAPTER IV: MEN MUST PLAY AND WOMEN WEEP
1
Ida John to Winifred John n.d. (October-November 1904). NLW MS 22311D fols. 143–6.
2
Ida John to Gwen John, 2 November 1904. NLW MS 22207C fols. 32–4.
3
Ida John to Margaret Hinton n.d. (spring 1905). NLW MS 22788C fol. I
R
.
4
Augustus John to Ottoline Morrell, 30 November 1908.
5
William Rothenstein to Gwen John, 30 May 1926. NLW MS 22311C fols. 1–2.
6
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (
c
. 1909). NLW MS 22115B fols. 7–8.
7
See Mary Lago
Imperfect Encounter
(1972), p. 207.
8
An article Rothenstein wrote about the Slade celebrated Augustus for many of those buccaneering qualities that fed the John legend. But Augustus objected to this. ‘Your all too picturesque treatment of me, leaves me in any posture but that of the penitent. Tho’ you have been good enough to clothe me in “Bravest green”, I find myself much more comfortable in my own less operatic habiliments and much more likely to face with fortitude and detachment the kind of music you bring to bear on me; – I have heard such strains before – but never! oh never! did I expect to find you in the position of band master – you my dear Will, whose flair and vision have been among the conditions which make life tolerable in this island… Differing with you, I think that the artist may
not
without shame join with his fellow men. His isolation indeed grows more complete as his art becomes more pure, nor is it the “ultimate usefulness” of the art which ever inspires him. His goal lies within himself – nor in his audacity is he deterred or terrified or bewildered for more than one sickly moment by the clamour and bustle and siren voices that come to him from without.’
9
Men and Memories
Volume II p. 166.
10
Athenaeum
(19 November 1904), p. 700.
11
‘Sickert is certainly an amusing and curious character – amiable withal. But it offended me to hear him cast off his old master so lightly and perfunctorily the other day – after all, Whistler wasn’t a bad artist. Sickert probably never saw his real merits, but he is singularly inept at times, for instance having once and for all disposed of poor Whistler he goes on to discover Robert Fowler Esq! But anybody who has served on a Jury with him must know he is quite futile...’
12
Sir William Rothenstein Memorial Exhibition, Tate Gallery, 5 May–4 June 1950.
13
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (early 1905). NLW MS 22789D fol. 63.
14
Augustus John to John Sampson n.d. (end of 1904). NLW MS 21459E fol. 13.
15
Ida John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. NLW MS 22789D fols. 66–70.
16
Ida John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (March/April 1905). NLW MS 22789D fols. 73–6.
17
Ibid.
18
Ida John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (1905). NLW MS 22789D fols. 71–2.
19
Augustus John to Michel Salaman n.d. (1905). NLW MS 14928D fol. 73.
20
Augustus John to John Sampson n.d. (December 1904). NLW MS 21459E fol. 13.
21
Augustus John to Michel Salaman, 9 February 1905. NLW MS 14928D fol. 69.
22
Gwen John to Dorelia McNeill, May 1905. NLW MS 22155B fol. 3.
23
Dorelia disliked certificates, and the birth was never registered. In a letter that would make a biographer’s heart sink, Augustus advised her: ‘There is no need to register Pyramus at all – or anybody else – you
may
register him for
nothing
within 6 weeks but after that you pay so much to do so. But you are not bound to register him. Sampson told me this. He has not registered Honor. So you can write to the registrar and tell him you have decided not to.’
24
Augustus John to John Sampson n.d. (December 1904). NLW MS 21459E fol. 13.
25
Augustus John to Michel Salaman n.d. (summer 1905). NLW MS 14928D fols. 73–5.
26
Ida John to Dorelia McNeill n.d. (March/April 1905). NLW MS 22789D fols. 77–8.
27
A number of Augustus’s etchings of Ida call her Anne; for example, ‘Anne with a Feathered Hat’ (CD 59) and ‘Anne with a Lace Shawl’ (CD 46). Ida
also began renaming her friends – the Rani, for example, who became Lady Polly. ‘Lady Polly is such a much more suitable name for you than Rani,’ she explained. ‘You are quite like lots of Lady Pollies in cheap novels… of course you will think it atrocious.’