The Dole (oil on canvas)

The artist's daughter Margaret writes: ‘With his interest in portraiture and, if there were no commissions on hand, my father would find a model for practice. One such portrait is of a young man who is holding a few coins, and his expression is of deep concern. This reflects the hardship that followed the First World War, mainly through mass unemployment … (the dole) was a very small weekly allowance to stave off abject poverty … I feel that my father, in painting this portrait, has, with some experience of deprivation himself, felt deeply for the man.’