ABSTRACT
Lewis’ seven years of bohemian adventures on the Continent—a sharp break from his life in England—were a prolonged and leisurely self-development, a sustained imitation of his father’s “do-nothing mode” during which the public school boy was polished by the sophisticated life of Europe. Lewis, who felt he had been taught very little at the Slade and who disliked German art, learned about painting mainly in Paris, Haarlem and Madrid. Augustus John’s early portraits of the young Lewis, with his intense expression, fine features and shock of black hair, reveal his transformation from a rather correct Englishman to an exotic bohemian. John’s etching of 1903 depicted Lewis in a jacket, waistcoat and tie, with full lips and a clean-shaven, rather heavy-set face. The influence of Nietzsche and the Russian novelists was paramount during these early years in Paris and lasted until after the War.
