Augustus John

After the Armory Show of 1913 in New York, a critic noted Henri Matisse and Augustus John as the two great European talents. Today, John’s work is hardly known outside of Great Britain, a circumstance due in large part to changes in taste throughout the 20th century and the status of the portrait painter in the world of abstract art. Mrs. Eliza Radeke, however, must be credited with being alert to the most discussed artists of her day and adding this work to the RISD Museum collection in 1921. She visited the artist in New York a year after donating the drawing in order to discuss the possibility of sitting for a portrait. The artist would not, however, agree to work in Providence, so the portrait was never commissioned. The drawing may depict John’s mistress, Dorelia McNeill, with whom he shared a household (from 1904) that also included his wife.