T.S. Eliot

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The Durban Municipal Art Gallery (The Wyndham Lewis Memorial Trust, the UK).

In the portrait of the world-famous poet and his friend, Lewis used the feature characteristic of his style – the depicted person is not looking at the viewer. The writer is depicted sitting in a three-piece suit in an armchair; his condition can be described as in-depth self-contemplation. This is the most scandalous canvas in the creative career of Lewis. The selection committee of the Royal Academy of Arts did not allow the work to be shown, seeing the presence of a stylized phallus in the background (two columns on either side of the poet), and the bird’s nest was interpreted as feminine. Such a strange interpretation, emphasizing the conservatism of academics, was refuted many times, and famous painter O. John even left the academy in protest. Lewis painted Eliot many times: he completed the last portrait in 1949, before becoming blind.