The allusion to his Irish background in this colour woodcut by Robert Gibbings is both troublesome and fascinating. Is this also the errant medical student who left the bogs of Munster with only enough money for one term, was it, at the Slade? It's just as good to see it together with its companion piece called Play, which was bought by the V&A in 1922, the year the Irish Civil War broke out.
The top print comes up for a auction at a three-day sale at Bamford's of Derby beginning Wednesday 13th March. It's a quite wonderful piece and I wonder which of the national collections will be bidding.