Portrait of William McElroy

Details

Augustus Edwin John, O.M., R.A. (1878-1961)
Portrait of William McElroy
signed 'John' (centre right)
oil on canvas
26 x 22 in. (66 x 55.9 cm.)

Provenance

Acquired by the late owner by 1979.

Special Notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent. VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

India Phillips

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Lot Essay

William McElroy, described by John as 'a kind of Horatio Bottomley', was a friend of the Irish Senator and poet Oliver St John Gogarty, and the playwright Sean O'Casey. According to Michael Holroyd he 'occupied himself as coal merchant impresario and part race-horse owner (A. John, The New Biography, London, 1996, p. 518). Another oil portrait dated 1933 is reproduced in J. Rothenstein, Augustus John, London, 1944, no. 62.

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