Above is a self portrait of Maurice Denton Welch. He was born in Shanghai on March 27, 1915. His mother Rosalind Welch, to whom he was very close, died of nephritis when he was eleven. He attended Repton and after a break in Shanghai, which is the subject of his first book, Maiden Voyage, attended the Goldsmith School of Art. While bicycling to visit his aunt in 1935 he was hit by a car and suffered an eventually fatal spinal injury that led to spinal tuberculosis, kidney failure, and hemorrhaging. After his accident, he began to focus on writing, and gained notoriety from an article about a visit with Walter Sickert. Edith Sitwell enjoyed this article and wrote the foreword to Maiden Voyage. She became somewhat of a mentor to Welch. He went on to write In Youth is Pleasure, and Brave and Cruel. After his death A Voice Through a Cloud, A Last Sheaf, I Left My Grandfather's House, and Dumb Instrument were published (De-la-noy 1984). He died December 30, 1948 while writing A Voice Through a Cloud.
Below are two examples of his painting.
the above two images were found at http://www.sienese-shredder.com/3/denton_welch-the_coffin_house.html
The picture of the coffin house below his painting is just for reference.
picture of young Welch
Denton Welch and I have a similar temperament and I enjoy reading his reactions and observations. Easily I find myself there, in cahoots with him, because he is so candid and describes scenes and objects so vividly.
Like me, Welch has a fascination with the macabre.
The Journals of Denton Welch. Ed. Michael De-la-Noy. Allison & Busby Ltd.: London, 1984.
