On a travertine base
numbered three from an edition of twenty
Following the death of Augustus John on 31 October 1961, Ivor Roberts-Jones was commissioned to produce a memorial to be sited in Fordingbridge, Hampshire, the place in which the painter had lived and died. The organising committee had originally hoped that his partner and model, Dorelia, would be included in the composition, but funds did not allow. The resulting single figure – for which the present work was a study – was executed in the sculptor's London studio and completed in 1967. His first full-scale commission, this brought him public recognition, and led to his election as an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1969.