Decorative Group

Artist Augustus Edwin John (1878 - 1961)

Date1908

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions201.9 x 173.4 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Lane Bequest, 1913. © The Estate of Augustus Edwin John.

Object number120

DescriptionOne of the leading portraitists of his time, Augustus John studied under Henry Tonks and Philip Wilson Steer at the Slade School where he was one of the most promising students. Fellow students included William Orpen with whom he travelled to Paris in 1899 to see the work of the Old Masters.

In Family Group, John depicted his first and second wives, Ida Nettleship (1877-1907) and Dorelia (Dorothy) McNeill (1881-1969) and four of his
children by them. John had fallen passionately in love with Ida and this led to their marriage in 1901. However, two years later he became enchanted with Dorothy McNeill, renamed Dorelia or Dodo by John. He had met her through his sister, the artist Gwen John, and she was to become his inspiration for the next sixty years
and a constant presence in his life. Her dominant position in the composition reflects the importance of her role in John’s life. She was described as a
‘gypsy Giaconda…fierce, disquieting, emphatic’ by Roger Fry. Dorelia’s character won her Ida’s affection and confidence and despite the trials of sharing him with someone else she became part of the household. Ida, seen at the centre of the composition, died a year before this work was painted from purerperal fever and peritonitis, five days after her fifth son Henry was born. However, her influence on John remained for many years. For a period, the elder children were cared for by
their grandparents. In 1908, Augustus and Dorelia took charge of the family, with the exception of baby Henry who remained with his grandparents. About this time, John started to use his children as models.

Summering in France, he wrote to Ottoline Morrell, in September 1908, that his children looked ‘like healthy vagabonds’. Family group is more than simply a family portrait – it is an image of an ideal family placed in a fantastic landscape. It was inspired by the decorative tradition of Puvis de Chavannes whose work John admired and by certain works by Picasso, such as La Vie, 1903 (Cleveland Museum of Art) and Family of Saltimbanques 1905 (Art Institute of Chicago). Like many of
John’s works, it has an epic quality and can be interpreted as a commentary on birth, life and death.

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