In May 1909 the critic C.J. Holmes wrote in The Burlington Magazine that John was now to be aligned with the moderns, not with the old masters he had previously revered:

He sides with Manet rather than with Van Dyck, and his power and originality excuse this preference. Fortunately there are many mansions in the house of Art; and if a remarkable talent chooses one of them we should be content to let him have his place there, even if we think he might be somewhat better accommodated elsewhere.

In this period from 1907 to 1914 the female figure—often, but not always, Dorelia, and as often as not painted out of doors—became a key motif in John’s repertoire. John was generally at his best when he did not linger too long on a drawing or painting. William Rothenstein wrote that the freshness of John’s 1902 oil painting of Ida, Merikli, was spoilt by bad glazing. ‘That was the worst of John’, he suggested: ‘he was impetuous, undisciplined, and had scant respect for his materials.’ The model for this freely painted panel has not been identified, though it was most likely Dorelia.