‡ POWYS EVANS a.k.a 'QUIZ' (Welsh 1899-1981) watercolour - entitled verso 'The Artist', signed and dated 1931, 45 x 30cms
Auctioneer's Note: Powys Evans—better known to the 1920s public by his pen name "Quiz"—was one of those rare artists who managed to perfectly capture the chaotic, flashy energy of interwar London. He was an absolute star of the British cartoon scene, bridging the gap between serious fine art and the fast-paced world of magazines. Through his sharp, witty ink drawings, Evans created a virtual yearbook of the era's most famous politicians, writers, and celebrities. Yet, despite being at the absolute centre of high society, his life story ended up being just as fascinating and mysterious as the famous faces he sketched. Growing up, Evans had a pretty comfortable life as the son of a Welsh judge who fully supported his art. He ended up getting a top-tier art education, learning from legendary English painters like Walter Sickert and Spencer Gore, and studying at the prestigious Slade School of Fine Art. His studies were cut short when he went off to fight on the Western Front with the Welsh Guards during the First World War. When he came home to London, he originally wanted to be a traditional oil painter, focusing on moody cityscapes. But the roaring twenties were kicking into high gear, and Evans quickly realized that his real talent lay in capturing the eccentric people around him. His big break came in 1922 when he published a series of funny drawings poking fun at a hit theatre production called The Beggar's Opera. The sketches were a massive success and caught the eye of The Saturday Review, a major magazine that hired him on the spot. Working under his new pseudonym Quiz, Evans developed a really cool, clean style. He could use just a few simple lines mixed with dramatic, slightly distorted features to instantly sum up a person's entire personality. People loved it, and his weekly cartoons became the talk of the town.
By the middle of the decade, Evans was on top of the world. His gallery shows in London were completely sold out, and Max Beerbohm, the undisputed king of British caricature at the time, even named Evans as his official artistic heir. Evans drew basically everyone who mattered in 1920s Britain, from a young Winston Churchill to famous authors like J. B. Priestley. His drawings were later collected into popular books, and they worked like an unofficial backstage pass to British high society, stripping away the stiff, formal dignity of the ruling class and showing how performative fame really was.
Then, just as he reached the absolute peak of his fame and financial success in his mid-thirties, Evans did something that shocked everyone. He walked away from it all. He quit his magazine jobs, turned his back on the London spotlight, and moved to the middle of nowhere in North Wales. He spent the next forty years living as a quiet semi-recluse in small towns like Dolgellau and Tywyn, completely detached from the art world until he passed away in 1981. No one really knows why he chose to disappear, but the brilliant collection of sketches he left behind still stands as an incredible time capsule of a wild, forgotten decade.
Provenance: private collection Monmouthshire
Comments: framed and glazed