Editing Augustus John (section)

==Later life==
[[File:Augustus John by Reginald Gray.jpg|thumb|right| Augustus John by Reginald Gray, at Royal Academy London in 1960 (collection Mr. Derry O'Sullivan. Paris)]]
In later life, John wrote two volumes of autobiography, ''Chiaroscuro'' (1952) and ''Finishing Touches'' (1964).<ref>Easton and Holroyd, pages 41–2.</ref> In old age, although John had ceased to be a moving force in British art, he was still greatly revered, as was demonstrated by the huge show of his work mounted by the [[Royal Academy]] in 1954. He continued to work up until his death in [[Fordingbridge]], Hampshire in 1961, his last work being a studio mural in three parts, the left hand of which showed a [[Falstaff]]ian figure of a French peasant in a yellow waistcoat playing a [[hurdy-gurdy]] while coming down a village street. It was Augustus John's final wave goodbye.

He joined the [[Peace Pledge Union]] as a [[pacifist]] in the 1950s, and was a founder member of the [[Committee of 100 (United Kingdom)|Committee of 100]]. On 17 September 1961, just over a month before his death, he joined the Committee of 100's's anti-nuclear weapons demonstration in [[Trafalgar Square]], London.  At the time, his son, Admiral Sir [[Caspar John]] was [[First Sea Lord]] and [[First Sea Lord|Chief of Naval Staff]]. He died at Fordingbridge, aged 83.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Augustus John|author2=Malcolm Easton|author3=University of Hull|title=Augustus John: portraits of the artist's family|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TtZLAQAAIAAJ|year=1970|publisher=University of Hull|page=11|isbn=9780900480898}}</ref>

He is said to have been the model for the bohemian painter depicted in [[Joyce Cary]]'s novel ''[[The Horse's Mouth]]'', which was later made into a [[The Horse's Mouth (film)|1958 film of the same name]] with [[Alec Guinness]] in the lead role.

[[Michael Holroyd]] published a biography of John in 1975 and it is a mark of the public's continued interest in the painter that Holroyd published a new version of the biography in 1996. A major exhibition, 'Gwen John and Augustus John,' was held at [[Tate Britain]] over the winter of 2004/5. According to the gallery's publicity, this exhibition revealed 'that although Augustus described himself and his sister as "the same thing, really," their art developed in different directions. Augustus' work seems wildly exuberant against Gwen's more introverted approach, but both artists indicate a similar flight from the modern world into a realm of fantasy.<ref>{{cite web |title=Gwen John and Augustus John – Exhibition at Tate Britain |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/gwen-john-and-augustus-john |website=Tate |access-date=4 August 2021}}</ref> The exhibition went on to the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff later in 2005. In 2018 [[Poole Museum]] in Dorset hosted the exhibition 'Augustus John: Drawn from Life,' which then went on to [[Salisbury Museum]] in 2019.