T.E. Lawrence c. 1919

This is Augustus John's charcoal on paper of T.E. Lawrence, and right away, I imagine John quickly capturing Lawrence’s likeness in a flurry of lines. See how the marks build up, defining the contours of his face and the folds of his headdress? I wonder what it was like to be John, charcoal in hand, trying to capture the essence of such a complex figure. The charcoal is so expressive, each stroke carrying a weight of intention, a kind of searching. The density of the lines around Lawrence's eyes and mouth is quite intimate. It’s like John is reaching for something beyond mere representation, maybe the soul of the man, his thoughts, his vulnerabilities. It reminds me of other artists, like Wyndham Lewis or Jacob Epstein, who were also grappling with the tensions between modernism and portraiture at the time. It feels like they're all in conversation, trying to figure out what it means to capture a person on paper, to make them present and alive again through art.