Editing Wyndham Lewis (section)

===Return to painting (1936–1941)===
[[File:Ezra Pound by Wyndham Lewis, 1919.jpeg|thumb|260px|Lewis's [[Ezra Pound]], 1919. The portrait is lost.]]
After becoming better known for his writing than his painting in the 1920s and early 1930s, he returned to more concentrated work on visual art, and paintings from the 1930s and 1940s constitute some of his best-known work. The ''[[The Surrender of Barcelona|Surrender of Barcelona]]'' (1936–37) makes a significant statement about the [[Spanish Civil War]]{{how?|date=February 2023}}. It was included in an exhibition at the Leicester Galleries in 1937 that Lewis hoped would re-establish his reputation as a painter. After the publication in ''[[The Times]]'' of a letter of support for the exhibition, asking that something from the show be purchased for the national collection (signed by, among others, [[Stephen Spender]], [[W. H. Auden]], [[Geoffrey Grigson]], [[Rebecca West]], [[Naomi Mitchison]], [[Henry Moore]] and [[Eric Gill]]) the [[Tate Gallery]] bought the painting, ''Red Scene''. Like others from the exhibition, it shows an influence from [[Surrealism]] and [[de Chirico]]'s [[metaphysical painting]]. Lewis was highly critical of the ideology of Surrealism, but admired the visual qualities of some Surrealist art.

During this period, Lewis also produced many of his most well-known portraits, including pictures of [[Edith Sitwell]] ([[Edith Sitwell (Lewis)|1923–1936]]), [[T. S. Eliot]] ([[Portrait of T. S. Eliot|1938]] and 1949), and [[Ezra Pound (Lewis)|Ezra Pound]] ([[Ezra Pound (Lewis)|1939]]). His 1938 portrait of Eliot was rejected by the selection committee of the [[Royal Academy]] for their annual exhibition and caused a furore. [[Augustus John]] resigned in protest.