Robin was the third son of Augustus John and his wife Ida; he was eight when this portrait was painted. John often used his family as models, particularly for his less conventional work. In this intimate study, the boy’s long tousled hair suggests both freedom and ambiguity of gender. The close-up perspective also disturbs the boundaries of distance usually maintained in portraiture.
Robin’s consciousness of being scrutinised by his father could be interpreted as betraying resentment or unease. The two had a difficult relationship. Robin’s silences often infuriated John, who declared his son ‘hardly utters a word and radiates hostility’.
-Gallery label, August 2004
For English boys of that background, it was common for hair to be left long until they were old enough to be dressed in trousers rather than shorts, usually at around 12 or 13. The fashion was beginning to decline by 1904, but Robin's hair here would not have been intended to indicate anything about gender, nor would it have been read as such at the time. The lack of ornamentation, such as a ribbon (whether tidy or in similarly carefree style to Robin's) would have clearly marked this as the hair of a boychild.
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