Two Jamaican Girls Augustus John, National Museums Liverpool

In this arresting portrait the air between sitters and artist is thick with something. One girl looks away bored or indifferent, while the other, although making eye contact is inscrutable maybe wary, slightly bemused. That could be explained by the fact that the artist, Welshman Augustus John, was very tall with long hair, and tended to wear earrings and a big black hat. The poet W B Yeats described him as the most innocent, wicked man I have ever met. Clearly inspired by the girls appearance, John has painted their rich complexions with fast, dabbing brushstrokes under two hours was his usual speed in a variety of colours pinks, greys and deep plum blues. The girls are hotel workers among a number of Jamaican women John painted during a trip there in 1937. The Jamaicans were starting to rebel against British colonial rule, and because of his own search for personal freedom John felt an affinity with them. John had had a starry career with his psychological portraits, as he called them.