This is a portrait of the artist’s second wife, Dorothy McNeill, known as Dorelia, or Dodo.  The couple met in 1903 and began a passionate affair in which Dorelia lived with both John and his first wife, Ida Nettleship, whom he had married in 1901.  This ménage à trois continued until Ida’s death in 1907.  Dorelia and John later married, living together, despite his numerous affairs, until the painter’s death in 1961.

A brilliant draughtsman, John worked mainly as a portraitist, including the Queen and Winston Churchill amongst his sitters.  Despite his connections with society, he and his family lived a bohemian lifestyle, rather like early hippies or New-Agers, wearing gypsy style clothing, even living for a time in a gypsy caravan.  His interest in gypsies was serious and he sought them out wherever he went.  He campaigned for gypsy and traveller rites and was elected president of the Gypsy Lore Society in 1936.