Illustrations

By October 1922 Kennington had sent Lawrence a number of drawings which were intended for inclusion within the text, if it was ever published. The original plan had been that the book would have as illustrations Kennington's Arab portraits, and those of two or three Englishmen, Feisal by John, which Lawrence described to Kennington as a 'stroke of genius' (1), a pencil drawing of Lawrence, and possibly a few others. Then Kennington had done some cartoon-type drawings - a chubby baby, which was to appear in the subscribers' edition as Temptation of necessary food, and a new-born baby, Us all - both inspired by Kennington's own children - and Lawrence, enthused by the new possibilities these presented, asked for more. Kennington relates that Lawrence got fun out of the new scheme, and began to juggle with artists and illustrations. 'Would I find a man to draw A and B? X and Y were drawing C and D. There must be masses of tailpieces. Roberts? Yes. Who else? All my artist neighbours. "Yes, poor things, set 'em going".' (2) Paul Nash was asked to do landscape illustrations working from Lawrence's own photographs - described by Lawrence, no doubt in the light of Kennington's earlier objections with reference to portraits, as a 'dishonourable' and 'damnable' proposition, but unavoidable, and he gave the artist 'complete freedom' to 'translate the photographs into life.' (3) Nash commented in a note to Gordon Bottomley, 12th September 1922, 'Lawrence is the salt of the earth and I know he's doing much of this simply to help painters who find a difficulty in affording to paint . . . ' (4)

Lawrence wrote to Kennington of his delight with his illustrations - 'The comic drawings are what I hoped for: but in the light of the imaginative ones they go rather pale. Still, like the book itself, the pictures mustn't be all mountain peaks: it would be a better book if it had more soft and smooth places in it, where people could rest their minds before a new march: and the comic drawings will provide what I didn't.' (5) He was later to describe the cartoons, this 'dozen Bateman-quality drawings', to Sydney Cockerell as 'rare, surprising & refreshing as plums in cake . . . Of course they don't fit the page, or the style of print: why they wouldn't be screamingly funny, if they did. It's Kennington, pricking the vast bladder of my conceit' (6); and his enthusiasm for variety was also demonstrated in a note to Kennington on the subject of artwork for the book - '. . . . and yet, think how many ingredients (by themselves, like suet, uneatable) may combine into a tooth-aching plum pudding.' (7)

Among the 'imaginative' drawings - 'wonderful imaginative things in colour - drawings, Blake-like, of states of mind' - he was particularly impressed by Kennington's interpretation of 'dysentery' ('as powerful a thing as I have ever set eyes on'), by the 'lightning-coloured picture of the night over Tafas which is almost painful, in spite of its beauty', the 'nightmare' and the 'snowstorm', [eventually entitled Strata]. (8) Lawrence was 'utterly amazed when Kennington showed him this drawing, and kept repeating that he could not believe that anyone could have captured so completely what at times he had felt about himself during the desert campaign'. (9)

Lawrence also continued to add to the list of portraits as his 'team of artists' (10) grew. He had met a number of prominent British artists at the Paris Peace Conference, and his increasing celebrity status brought him into contact with others and served to promote their participation. At this time Captain Algernon Boyle and Lt-Col C E Wilson were yet to be done, while William Roberts had recently sent him his work on Lt-Col Robin Buxton and Sir Henry McMahon. He also hoped for General Wingate from Roberts, and William Nicholson had been working on General Gilbert Clayton.

A few plans failed to come to fruition - Stanley Spencer did not fulfil his commission for a portrait of Air Marshall Sir Geoffrey Salmond, and Wyndham Lewis recounts that he 'did a set of drawings for the book - not so quickly as I should, and all of a sudden I heard it had appeared to my great disappointment.' (11)

1	Letter to Eric Kennington, no date, HRC, quoted in Charles Grosvenor essay in The T E Lawrence Puzzle, University of Georgia Press, 1984, p 163
2	Friends, p 274
3	Letter to Paul Nash, 3rd August 1922, Dartmouth College Library, quoted in Charles Grosvenor essay in The T E Lawrence Puzzle, University of Georgia Press, 1984, p 161
4	Paul Nash, by Anthony Bertram, Faber, 1955, p 112
5	L 172, 27.X.22
6	L 257, 15.X.24
7	Letter to Eric Kennington, 23rd January 1924, HRC, quoted in Charles Grosvenor essay in The T E Lawrence Puzzle, University of Georgia Press, 1984, p 178
8	L 173, D G Hogarth, 29.X.22
9	Anthony Nutting, Lawrence of Arabia - The Man and the Motive, Hollis & Carter, 1961, p 243
10	L 202, Jonathan Cape, 10.IV.23
11	Blasting and Bombardiering, Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1937, p 247

Next section - First publishing plans

The writing of Seven Pillars of Wisdom - full listing