10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
20
⊕ AUGUSTUS JOHN RA (BRITISH 1878-1961)
PORTRAIT OF EDGAR ALBERT 'LOBEN' SLADE
oil on canvas
59.5 x 49.5cm; 23 1/2 x 19 1/2in
81.5 x 72cm; 32 1/4x 28 1/4in (framed)
Works by Augustus John and Loben Slade from a Private Collection, London (lots 20-25)
Provenance
Jean Hornak, née Slade. (Jean Hornak, 1914-1998, was Loben Slade's daughter. After studying at St Martin's School of Art she worked as a scene painter at various London theatres and later collaborated with leading interior designer John Beresford Fowler, 1906-1977, on a range of country house commissions including for the National Trust at Petworth)
Michael and Jane Thomas (purchased from the above in the early 1960s; the Thomases were close friends with the Slade family)
Thence by descent to the present owner, daughter of the above
Exhibited
(possibly) London, Wilton Gallery, Drawings by E.A. Slade, Paintings by Carl Grünewald, 1961
According to the typed inscription on the old label on the reverse of the frame (fig.1), John painted the present work when he was twenty circa 1898, 'the evening before his first portrait commission'. The commission referred to is Portrait of An Old Lady in the collection of Tate Britain. According to Michael Holroyd in his biography on Augustus John, the painting was left unfinished as John grew bored with his subject and the old lady restless (Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, vol. 1, The Years of Innocence, London, 1974, p. 85) The present portrait by John of Loben was thus, in essence, a warm up exercise, with both portraits displaying the same sketchy brown background and loose brushwork.
Born in Islington, the painter Edgar Albert 'Loben' Slade (1872-1963) had been introduced to John by his younger brother Charles whilst they were together at the Slade School of Art in the late 1890s. The brothers were nephews of Felix Slade (1790-1868), a well-known collector and benefactor of the arts who founded the eponymous art school.
Loben went on to marry Jessie McNeill (see lot 21), the sister of Augustus John's muse and mistress Dorelia whilst Charles became a photographer. Two later drawings by John of Loben dated 1903 and 1909 are known to exist, as are sketches by John of Charles. Photographs of John by Charles Slade from the early 1900s are in the National Portrait Gallery.
Slade first worked with a lithography firm before travelling to Australia, Burma and South Africa, where he was a political cartoonist during the Boer War (1899-1902). He exhibited occasionally at the New English Art Club and the Chenil Gallery and later in 1961 a retrospective exhibition was held at the Wilton Gallery on Motcomb Street. From the early 1920's Slade lived at Monksfield in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight and is buried on the Island at Shalfleet.
We are grateful to Rebecca John, the artist's grand-daughter, for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Sold for £3,200
PORTRAIT OF EDGAR ALBERT 'LOBEN' SLADE
oil on canvas
59.5 x 49.5cm; 23 1/2 x 19 1/2in
81.5 x 72cm; 32 1/4x 28 1/4in (framed)
Works by Augustus John and Loben Slade from a Private Collection, London (lots 20-25)
Provenance
Jean Hornak, née Slade. (Jean Hornak, 1914-1998, was Loben Slade's daughter. After studying at St Martin's School of Art she worked as a scene painter at various London theatres and later collaborated with leading interior designer John Beresford Fowler, 1906-1977, on a range of country house commissions including for the National Trust at Petworth)
Michael and Jane Thomas (purchased from the above in the early 1960s; the Thomases were close friends with the Slade family)
Thence by descent to the present owner, daughter of the above
Exhibited
(possibly) London, Wilton Gallery, Drawings by E.A. Slade, Paintings by Carl Grünewald, 1961
According to the typed inscription on the old label on the reverse of the frame (fig.1), John painted the present work when he was twenty circa 1898, 'the evening before his first portrait commission'. The commission referred to is Portrait of An Old Lady in the collection of Tate Britain. According to Michael Holroyd in his biography on Augustus John, the painting was left unfinished as John grew bored with his subject and the old lady restless (Michael Holroyd, Augustus John, vol. 1, The Years of Innocence, London, 1974, p. 85) The present portrait by John of Loben was thus, in essence, a warm up exercise, with both portraits displaying the same sketchy brown background and loose brushwork.
Born in Islington, the painter Edgar Albert 'Loben' Slade (1872-1963) had been introduced to John by his younger brother Charles whilst they were together at the Slade School of Art in the late 1890s. The brothers were nephews of Felix Slade (1790-1868), a well-known collector and benefactor of the arts who founded the eponymous art school.
Loben went on to marry Jessie McNeill (see lot 21), the sister of Augustus John's muse and mistress Dorelia whilst Charles became a photographer. Two later drawings by John of Loben dated 1903 and 1909 are known to exist, as are sketches by John of Charles. Photographs of John by Charles Slade from the early 1900s are in the National Portrait Gallery.
Slade first worked with a lithography firm before travelling to Australia, Burma and South Africa, where he was a political cartoonist during the Boer War (1899-1902). He exhibited occasionally at the New English Art Club and the Chenil Gallery and later in 1961 a retrospective exhibition was held at the Wilton Gallery on Motcomb Street. From the early 1920's Slade lived at Monksfield in Freshwater on the Isle of Wight and is buried on the Island at Shalfleet.
We are grateful to Rebecca John, the artist's grand-daughter, for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.
Auction: Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026, 10th Jun, 2026
L.S. Lowry’s expansive Figures on a Beach (lot 39) is the lead painting in our June sale that ranges from the Old Masters to Modern British and post-War & Contemporary. Many of the works have been in the same collection for decades; a number have fascinating stories attached.
The first seven lots of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters are from the collection of Paul Wertheimer. Acquired almost hundred years ago, Wertheimer brought the works to England when he fled Germany in 1938. Leading the group are 17th century panels attributed to Moses van Uyttenbroeck and Lucas van Uden, the latter a reduced copy of Rubens’ original in the Royal Collection (lots 1 & 4). Another early panel, a portrait of Cornelisz. Van Beresteyn, is by a follower of Michiel Jansz. van Miereveld (lot 9).
Works by fellow artists and friends Augustus John and Edgar Augustus ‘Loben’ Slade (lots 20-25) feature John’s early portrait of Loben and five works on paper by the lesser known Slade, nephew of the founder of the Slade School of Art, one of which is a watercolour of Jessie McNeill, John’s model, muse and mistress.
Also in the sale are seven works by Australian artists, including Jeffrey Smart, William Blamire Young and Leonard French, all from a private collection in Surrey (lots 30-36), and ten paintings from a Cheshire Collection that features the work of Helen Bradley, Edouard Cortes and Marcel Dyf together with bracing coastal views by Campbell Archibald Mellon (lots 40-48).
A small and fascinating work on paper is by Paul Nash. It captures the view of Harry Rocks off Ballard Down from Nash's flat in Swanage where he was living in the mid-1930s and which he incorporated into his Surrealist work ahead of the major Surrealist exhibition in London of 1936 (lot 27).
Beside the Lowry beach scene, other post-War works include an important early sculpture by James Tower (lot 52), a leading sculptor-ceramicist of his generation. Other post-War abstract works include examples by Frank Avray Wilson, James Hull and Etienne Beothy (lots 50, 51, 55 & 57).
For more information please contact us | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | +44 (0)20 7806 5541
Viewing
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 7th June: 12pm - 4pm
Monday 8th June: 10am - 8pm (Drinks 5 - 8pm)
Tuesday 9th June: 10am - 5pm
