John Craxton, R.A. (1922-2009)

Throughout the war John Craxton drew and painted menaced landscapes containing solitary figures (shepherds, poets, dancers, dreamers) which were emblematic images of the artist himself. This self-portrait dates from 1943, when Craxton worked in Dorset and also in Pembrokeshire with Graham Sutherland. It relates closely to a painting owned by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, in which the watchful figure is sheltering in a cave rather than a tree.

I.C.