Artist. He is a world-wide recognized Welsh painter, who is especially known for his portraits, mainly in oil on canvas, of rich and famous people, which were done in the first half of the 20th century. He first attended Tenby School of Art. With his older sister Gwen John, he studied at the Slade School of Art in London from 1894 to 1899. In 1898, he was the recipient of the Slade Prize with his painting "Moses and Brazen Serpent." On the outbreak of World War I in 1914, he was the best-known artist in Britain according to critics. He obtained a commission with a staff car in the infantry of the Canadian Army and was given permission to paint “whatever he liked” on the Western Front. During the war, he and King George V were the only British officers to have beards. Since no vacancies in the British Army, he agreed to enlist in the Canadian Army if a huge canvas was painted for a gallery that was never built. The painting, “The Canadian Opposite Lens,” which measured 40 feet wide by 12 feet high, was never finished becoming the property of a private client after the war. In July of 2011 the canvas was re-homed in the Canadian War Museum with an unveiling by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Besides this painting, he painted several portraits on soldiers and attended the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919 where he painted several delegates. Others, who sat for him later in the 1920s, include W. B. Yeats, Aleister Crowley, Lady Gregory, Thomas Hardy, George Bernard Shaw, Tallulah Bankhead, several portraits of T.E. Lawrence and two portraits of Princess Elizabeth Bibesco. Many artists have painted portraits of him since he was an interesting subject with his spearing eyes, full beard and a gold hoop earring. There are several self-portraits of himself. Portraits of him have graced the cover of “Time” magazine on three separate issues: September 10, 1928, May 31, 1948, and January 14, 1952. He held a teaching position at the University of Liverpool where Gypsy scholar, John Sampson became his colleague and from that point, his personal life can be described as a non-traditional with him participating in a Bohemian lifestyle with social gatherings of other artists, free-thinking scholars, scientists, politicians, and anarchists. He became interested in the gypsy lifestyle, served as President of the Gypsy Lore Society for nearly 30 years and adopting their culture. He married twice and had at least fourteen known children. In 1950 he spent some time in Jamaica painting. Later in life, he wrote his autobiography twice, "Chiaroscuro" in 1952 and "Finishing Touches" in 1964. In 1942 he received the Order of Merit by King George VI for his service to the arts, and was President of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters from 1948 to 1953. A few weeks before his death, he was part of a demonstration against nuclear weapons in London. A major collection of his paintings remains permanently on display at the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff.