Virginia Woolf stated that by 1908 the ‘age of Augustus John was dawning.’ Certainly in the decade immediately before the First World War it was generally agreed that he was the most important, the most exciting and the most controversial artist in Britain – the Welsh equivalent, perhaps, of Gauguin or Picasso. This lecture looks at John’s early life up to 1919, and his friendships and rivalries with artists that included Percy Wyndham Lewis, Henry Lamb and his sister, Gwen John.

David Boyd Haycock is the author of a number of acclaimed books, including A Crisis of Brilliance: Five Young British Artists and the Great War (2009), and Brilliant Destiny: The Age of Augustus John (2023). He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Art History at Oxford Brookes University.

Price includes wine and canapes