[1] After a Bohemian upbringing in Dorset, Vivien John attended the Slade School of Fine Art from 1932 to 1934 and had her first solo exhibition at the Cooling Gallery in London during 1935 before studying with the Euston Road School of artists in the late 1930s.
[2][3] Travelling with her father, she visited Italy, France and then Kingston in Jamaica where a joint exhibition of their paintings was held.
[3] During the Second World War, Vivien John served as a nurse with the Red Cross.
[2] Fellow artist Gwen John was her aunt, and some of Vivien's half-siblings were cellist Amaryllis Fleming, Sir Caspar John and another artist Gwyneth Johnstone; only Sir Caspar was born from Augustus's only marriage and he became a prominent Royal Navy admiral and later First Sea Lord.
Her only living half-brother is retired television director Tristan de Vere Cole (b.