D. H. Lawrence's Paintings

A major new book on the art of DH Lawrence. D.H. Lawrence's fame as a writer has tended to eclipse his paintings, but he was a keen painter all his life, and in his last years painting became almost his favoured activity. He was well aware of his technical deficiencies, but nevertheless put life into his paintings as into everything he touched. In 1929 his paintings were exhibited at the Warren Gallery in London, and attracted much attention before the police seized thirteen of them, which were eventually released only on the undertaking that they would never again be exhibited. A fine limited edition of reproductions was published by the Mandrake Press to coincide with the exhibition. This immediately became a scarce collector's item, and is now virtually unobtainable. Few people have seen the originals, since they have never been exhibited again, many are lost, and the only collections are in New Mexico and Texas. DH Lawrence's Paintings contains high-quality colour reproductions of more of his paintings than any previous book, including some previously unpublished. It also brings together for the first time everything he wrote about painting, his three essays, (including his long introduction to the Mandrake edition, which constitutes a major analysis of the creative process in art, especially in relation to Cezanne), and extracts from his letters and poems. Much has been written about Lawrence's views on art, and the influence of the visual arts on his writings, but very little on his actual paintings. Keith Sagar's comprehensive commentary places the paintings in the context of Lawrence's life and work, and is illustrated by photographs, and reproductions of some of the paintings Lawrence copied or was most influenced by.