AUGUSTUS JOHN, O.M., R.A. (1878-1961)

Evan Morgan (1893-1949) was the eccentric son of Courtney Charles Evan Morgan, 1st Viscount Tredegar (1867-1934). His friendship with Augustus John dates from at least 1917 and it was while John was spending the summer of 1925 on Ischia that the two met in Rome, where this portrait was most probably painted. Evan Morgan had a deep interest in the Occult and had recently converted to Catholicism. On leaving Ischia John wrote that they met and ‘dined very luxuriously at the Collegio Beda’.

We are very grateful to Rebecca John for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.