Gavin in his study at St John’s

*Gavin in his study at St John’s, painted by his brother, Stephen Bone in the 1920s. Oil on canvas.*
Gavin and Stephen were both born in Chiswick to artist Sir Muirhead Bone and writer Gertrude Helena Dodd. Gavin was a fellow of St John’s College, Oxford, where he translated Anglo-Saxon poetry and taught English. He was also a distinguished artist and had exhibited at the Royal Academy. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 39.
In the late 1930s and during the Second World War, Stephen was active in assisting German refugees to settle in England and was a member of the War Artists' Advisory Committee, set up by Sir Kenneth Clark. After the war his popularity declined; he became an art critic for the Manchester Guardian, wrote for the Glasgow Herald and did television and radio work for the BBC. He died aged 53 in 1958.