Portrait of John Barron, 1941 show_depth deeply retro in a 70s

deeply retro in a 70s Bond girl way

ending up as the Keep of Tigers at London Zoo

The second ‘The Travel Brochures’ could be a scene from a G K Chesterton

Commissions for illustrations followed for magazines and plays

I assume it is a self-portrait

Portrait of John Barron, 1941 show_depth deeply retro in a 70sThe artist is presumably one of those illustrators or caricaturists who made a good living filling magazines and club walls with portraits of the stars of the day. Drawn in 1941 while the sitter was serving as a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy it has all the late Deco style of Hollywood studio portraits of the previous decades. The subject is the English character actor John Barron (1920 2004) depicted at the tender age of 21 so perhaps it was a present.