D’Oyly John paintings

D’oyly John Paintings

D’Oyly John (as everyone called him) was born in South Africa in 1906 and  brought up in Durban. On leaving school he joined the Asiatic Petroleum Company, traveling extensively throughout the Far East. From 1930-1934 he worked in the Tanganyika Police Force rising from Inspector to Public Prosecutor. Later he joined the Texas Oil Company in South Africa.

D’Oyly John painting of South of France[/caption]There are many stories, probably apocryphal, about his early life. Amongst them are that he was the illegitimate son of Augustus John, that he worked on a Japanese tramp steamer, that he worked as a life saver in Colombo and a pearl fisher in Manila and even that he did “a bit of hush-hush gun running!

Influences
At the outbreak of the Second World War, D’OYLY-JOHN took a commission in the Provost Corps and during the 1945 campaign  but he was wounded and temporarily blinded as a result of being blown up by a bomb. It was during the period of convalescence that he was encouraged to take up painting as a pastime by his friend, the artist and teacher Edmund Fearnley-Whittingstall. He was also influenced by the Nice artist Paul Negeli as well as a Belgian artist who used his palette knife to paint. He soon proved himself to be a natural artist of uncommon genius.

D’OYLY-JOHN was one of the most successful and brilliant (in both senses of the word) artists of his time. Was it his genius and colour sense? It defies explanation, other than that it reflected his personality. He used his genius and colour sense with equanimity in everything he painted. Subjects are made up of several different colours, although to us it may seem to be of one shade or tone, and in this you will realise the brilliance of D’OYLY-JOHN’s technique.

Bognor Regis Exhibition
In the 1950s and 1960s, his works were sold in print form by one of the major publishers of that time, and so his work became universally known and popular. For a while, he lived in Cannes and in 1965 he held a hugely successful exhibition in Bognor Regis when many of the major dealers in the country (for example Stacey Marks, Aldridges, Frost and Reed) bought his works

Queen Mother’s collection
The Queen Mother bought a number of D’oyly John paintings (when she was Queen) for the Royal collection and his work is to be seen in other notable collections throughout the world.

D’OYLY-JOHN lived in Rottingdean near Brighton, and travelled extensively throughout Europe in search of new subjects to glorify his canvases. His paintings have been available since about 1980 through StewArt Gallery. He suffered a stroke in 1987, and did not really produce any works after that date. He now rests in St Margaret’s Churchyard.

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