Augustus John and Dorelia McNeill lived at Alderney Manor, Dorset, from August 1911 until March 1927. The house and gardens there became an eloquent expression of Dorelia's personality, and vagrants of all kinds were encouraged to make free of the grounds. Painted in the year they moved in, during a brilliant summer, this portrait of Dorelia is a celebration of the family's new surroundings. The portrait's even areas of colour, sharp contours and flattened background reveal the artist's familiarity with the 'Fauves', the so-called 'wild beasts' of contemporary French painting.