Signed l.l.: John

Pen and sepia ink, 24 by 13.5 cm (9 ½ by 5 ¼ ins)

During the First World War, Lord Beaverbrook gave Augustus John the honorary rank of major with the intention that he should paint a monumental canvas showing Canadian soldiers at war. In the event John never completed the commission and the result is the huge (12 metre long) unfinished canvas The Canadians Opposite Lens in the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, Canadian War Museum, Ottawa. To prepare for this project, John spent three months in France from December 1917 during which works like this were executed - intimate even touching portrait sketches of the Canadian troops stationed there.