Silvia describes meeting Augustus John at one of the famous Chelsea Arts fancy dress balls;* he was dressed as a Viking in chain-mail and looked superb. ‘AJ’ had a reputation for having a commanding presence and unconventional appearance wherever he went! Silvia may also have known him through Albert Rutherston; he, along with AJ and William Orpen, were such close friends they became known as ‘the three musketeers’. Augustus was tall, Albert was short – maybe Orpen was in between…
Whether or not Silvia was one of AJ’s many models is not for us to know. However, thanks to Michael Holroyd’s biography of AJ, we do know that in 1917 she was a member of the ‘John Beauty Chorus’ which sang an Ode to Augustus John. At the time, Silvia was studying at the Slade School of Art where ‘the three musketeers’ had all studied some twenty years previously. The Ode was part of the grand finale for a fund-raising pantomime held at the Chelsea Palace Theatre in aid of small concerts held on the Western Front. A second performance took place at the Lyric Theatre and was organised in conjunction with the Ladies Auxiliaries Committee of the YMCA. Evidently, both performances, and preceding rehearsals, were attended by duchesses and fashionable ladies alike, who vyed with each other about John’s questionable behaviour but continued to be in awe of him. **
The chorus consisted of a group of Slade girls. A list of participants is shown below, with Silvia at the top. Mention of a Miss Fausset at the end of the list is bit of an oddity as it is unlikely that there was another Fausset present. At the time, a fashion came into play for female artists to use their surname as a forename, famously by Carrington (at the end of the list) whose forename was Dora. She was born in the same year as Silvia but attended the Slade School in 1910-14 during which time Silvia was training to be an actress.
CHORUS
Miss Silvia Faussett Baker
Miss Faith Celli
Miss Vera Beringer
Miss Beryl Freeman
Miss Winifred Bateman
Miss Manora Thew
Miss Ellen O’Malley
Miss Elsie McNaught
Mrs Campbell
Miss Ethel Mackay
Mdme Vandervelde
Mrs Gordon Craig
Miss Sylvia Meyer
Miss Margaret Guinness
Miss Marjorie Elvery
Miss Eve Balfour
Miss Stella Storey
Miss Dorothy Goodday
Miss Janet Ross
Miss Olga Ward
Miss Barbara Hiles
Miss Phyllis Dicksee
The Hon Sylvia Brett
Miss Irene Russell
Miss North
Mrs Henderson
Mrs French
Miss Emily Lowes
Miss Dorothy Christine
Miss D’Erlanger
Miss Honor Wigglesworth
Mrs Hanney
Mrs Nigel Playfair
Masters Giles and Lyon Playfair
Mrs Dodgson
Miss Faussett
and
Carrington
1st chorus:
John! John!
If you’d get on,
The quaintest of clothes
you must don!
When out for an airing,
You’ll hear folks declaring:
‘There goes an Augustus John!’
2nd chorus:
John! John!
How he’s got on!
He turns ev’ry goose
to a swan!
You needn’t be pretty,
Or wealthy or witty,
If you’re an ‘Augustus John!’
3rd chorus:
John! John!
How he’s got on !
No light half so brightly
has shone!
The verdict of Chelsea’s
That nobody else is
A patch on Augustus John!
According to Holroyd, the pantomime had an obscure backdrop involving the sculptor Jacob Epstein who did not volunteer for the war effort. Once compulsory conscription was introduced, he was duly called up but not before he had completed a sculptured head of AJ giving him a ‘certain wildness… an untamed quality that is the essence of the man’. Meanwhile, AJ avoided conscription on account of his knees, one of which was badly injured whilst walking in Ireland and the other following a fall. Epstein blamed the ‘monster pantomime’ for implying that AJ was the most popular artist of the day and that he was one of the ‘best-hated’. He imagined ‘this dastardly business’ was part of a conspiracy against him for not volunteering.
Years later, when Silvia published Journey to Yesterday, she reflects that she felt very strongly about the beauty of his (AJ’s) drawings and find it hard to be friendly or polite to anyone who speaks slightingly about them. In 1955, Augustus stayed at Castillo Santa Clara in Torremolinos where Silvia was staying. It was a popular venue amongst the artistic fraternity and full of arty gossip. Whilst in Spain, Augustus bought one of Silvia’s drawings and sent a cheque for it by post (?) when they were both back in England.
There are copies of a few letters, sent by AJ to Silvia, that are held in the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library. One of them is dated 7th September but with no year. Another is undated but was penned after his visit to Torremolinos, as he talks about returning to pick up lots of canvasses which he left behind. He says he is hoping so much to see you (Silvia) and closes: Yours, with love, Augustus. A third one is dated 24th June 1956 when AJ bemoans the fact that he is getting older.
The last letter is written, in a shaky hand, on 7th January 1959 from his home in Fordingbridge. He admits that he has reached the “difficult age” all of a sudden when one is far too much at the mercy of other people. I shall never get used to it. He goes on to say I shall always remember the lovely way you had with the children from the school (in Spain?). I hope you keep on drawing and writing – you are so good at both. It is signed off: With love from us always under Capricorn, Augustus.
* The Chelsea Arts Balls, at the Albert Hall, were the Bohemian centrepiece in London’s social season. Either held on Mardi Gras or New Year’s Eve, the Balls were extravagant affairs with over 100 performers, lavish decorations and up to 4,000 dancers all in fancy dress on the ‘Great Floor’ of the Albert Hall. With exotic themes such as ‘Egyptian’, ‘Noah’s Ark’, ‘Arabian Nights’ and ‘Sun Worship’, revellers would dance into the early hours until a breakfast was eventually served at 5am as an end to the festivities. http://chelseaartsclub.com/homepublic/history/
** Augustus John, The New Biography by Michael Holroyd (publ Vintage 1997)
pp422-24, Appendix 5, footnotes p671; also pp580-581, footnotes p689.