Lot 98: MACHEN, ARTHUR (1863-1947, Welsh novelist and essayist, member of the Order of the Golden Dawn with Yeats and Aleister Crowley)

PORTRAIT BY FREDERICK CARTER A.R.E. (1885-1967),
etching, head and shoulders, wearing a trilby hat, signed by Carter and Machen below the image, and inscribed by Carter to W. J. G. [John Gawsworth] 'in the pub parlour' [the King's Arms near Machen's house at Amersham, according to a note in pencil on the verso], slight crease down right-hand plate line, 83/4 x 65/8 in (22.2 x 16.8 cm).

Known as the 'Apostle of Wonder', the concept of the numinous underlying the ordinary was central to Machen's artistic philosophy - as he himself said: 'the sense of the eternal mysteries, the eternal beauty hidden beneath the crust of commonplace things.' He was a pioneering cult author of horror and fantasy.

The present portrait reflects Carter's use of the woodblock. There are no portraits of Machen in the National Portrait Gallery.