PORTRAIT of AUDEN

Randolph-Macon College: Dr. John Temple, 1974. Original. Framed in plastic. Very Good. Dr. John Temple Witt. Association Copy of a Portrait of W.H. Auden once cherished by Dr. William Gray, Chairman of the department of English at Randolph-Macon College, executed in pen-and-ink (approximately 12" by 10") by Dr. John Temple Witt, the former Head of the Art Department at the college located in Ashland, Virginia. This contemporary portrait of the distinguished visiting poet is named, numbered, signed, and dated by Witt: "Auden 5/10 JT. Witt '74." Association Copy once owned by Dr. William Gray, a close friend of W. H. Auden and dedicatee of one of his poems.<br/><br/>It is likely that the Wystan Auden encountered the artist, Dr. John Temple Witt, Head of the Art Department at Randolph Macon College, Ashville, Virginia, when the poet stayed there during one of his readings in the early 1970s. A newspaper clipping from that time indicates that the poet looked particularly agèd, worn, wrinkled, unshaven, and dissheveled: impressions vividly conveyed with accuracy and sympathy in this rare study.<br/><br/>The poet loved visiting the college and stayed with his longtime close friend, Dr. William Gray, Chair of the English department. This portrait is an Association Copy once cherished by Dr. Gray, who had become lifelong friends with Auden beginning from the time of his undergraduate days at Harvard. Auden dedicated "The Aliens" to Dr. Gray, to whom he signed personal letters with "Love" and "All My Love."<br/><br/>In an address he gave during the early Seventies, Gray said of his dear and much admired friend, <br/><br/>"For the past twenty-five years, Mr. Auden has enjoyed the reputation of being the most important and original poet of the post Eliot generation in English letters. He is also a very fine literary critic, actually generally considered to be the finest living critic of literature, and he has even turned his talent to the theatre...Mr. Auden is distinctly a poet in the grand manner...the most distinguished poet of the Twentieth century, the world's greatest living writer, Mr. W. H. Auden." <br/><br/>The finely executed pen-and-ink over engraved portrait is framed in evocative thick, hard--but scratched and slightly age-toned--plastic that complements Auden's wrinkled and tobacco-stained face. The scratches seem to have accrued during the storage of Dr. Gray's personal property after his death, but they complement the subject. A wire hanger and screws were originally attached to the plastic back for suspension but they have been removed and stored for reattachment, as desired.