These had been originally begun in and for the hall of Sir Hugh Lane’s house in Cheyne Walk, but in time I found the continual intrusion of visitors while I was at work more than I could stand, and removed the canvases after a sharp passage with Sir Hugh. In his autobiography Chiaroscuro, John records: ‘In my studio in the King’s Road, Chelsea, I was engaged on some large mural decorations. The collective terms used by John in these letters suggest that he was working on all three works concurrently. There are letters of 1910, 19 in which John refers to work on ‘the Lane paintings’ (information supplied by Michael Holroyd). It was worked and re-worked from 1910–15. It is probable that John did not begin work on ‘Lyric Fantasy’ until the end of 1910, when he writes to Ottoline Morrell (December 1910) that he is ‘determined to get Lane’s pictures done by the Spring or perish’, although some of the ideas for the figures, notably that of Ida on the far right who died in 1907, can be traced back to sketches made before 1907. Loewy’s The Rendering Of Nature In Early Greek Art which was published in this year).
FANTASY PAGE ART TEXT ARCHIVE
All imitative art is a bore!’ (letter in Tate Archive dated 1907 by reference to Fothergill’s translation of E. I hope in the foregoing I have not suggested to your suspicious mind the blighted notion of a picture “beautiful and meaningless”. I think the idea grand-the construction however is puzzling. I will dwell on the thoughts of Noah’s Ark as you bid me. Fothergill of this year indicates: ‘I am about to paint a picture which will prove conclusively that the finest decoration can be produced without any direct reference to visual “Nature”-that is it will be as it were a natural growth itself- coming unbidden and self sufficient like any flower and not at all concerned to imitate other flowers. The exact date of beginning work on ‘Lyric Fantasy’ is not certain although clearly the idea behind it had been conceived as early as 1907 as John’s letter to J. ‘Lyric Fantasy’ is one of three decorative schemes commissioned by Sir Hugh Lane for Lindsay House, Cheyne Walk in 1909, the other two being ‘The Mumpers’ (collections Detroit Institute of Arts) and ‘Forzeed Amore’ (subsequently over-painted as ‘The Flute of Pan’, collection Sir Philip Dunn). pls.83 and 35 Augustus John, Chiaroscuro, 1952, p. Lit: John Rothenstein, Augustus John, 1944, pp.15–16, repr.
Exh: British Painting Since Whistler, National Gallery, 1940 (183) as ‘Decoration: Lyric Fantasy’ r.a. Oil, pencil, brown monochrome underpainting on canvas, 92 x 185(233.8x470).
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