Orpen on Tonk's Pastels

It was only just before Henry Tonk’s death in 1936 that Dickie Orpen became aware of the works that her teacher and mentor had been doing for Harold Gillies at Sidcup during the 1914 to 18 war. 

“I have never heard of these drawings” she said,  “and indeed, it was not until 1939 that I told Lord Dawson’s secretary “Hughie” how much I longed to see them. Once it was arranged and the drawings were brought up from the Cellars of the Royal College of Surgeons and shown to me by a somewhat apprehensive Pathologist.” She regarded them as “almost an explosion of talent”.  “One imagines that his normal pace of drawing and painting was leisure, nothing done “con bric” but always with unhurried observation and humility. Here, marvellous speed. Often have I longed to question him about the length of time these drawings took? How far from the patient was he drawing? How much pastel dust (pastels are very friable and clouds of colour can be blown off the paper) could have allowed to float onto these exposed areas?”