Self-Portrait (1902)

Gwendolen Mary John (June 22, 1876 – September 18, 1939) was a Welsh artist. is the 173rd day of the year (174th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1876 Pick up Sticks(MDCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Life

She was born in Haverfordwest, Wales, the second of four children of Edwin William John and his wife Augusta (née Smith). Edwin John was a solicitor whose dour temperament cast a chill over his family, and Augusta was often absent from the children due to ill health, leaving her two sisters—stern Salvationists—to take her place in the household.^[1] Despite the considerable tension in the family (who became known as "those turbulent Johns")^[2] the children's interest in literature and art was encouraged. Following the mother’s premature death in 1884, the family moved to Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Haverfordwest (Welsh: Hwlffordd) is the county town of Pembrokeshire, in south-west Wales. ... This article is about the country. ... Shield of The Salvation Army The Salvation Army is a non-military evangelical Christian organisation. ... Harbour of Tenby in Nov, 2001 Tenby (Welsh: Dinbych-y-Pysgod, little town of the fishes) is a walled seaside town in Pembrokeshire, West Wales, lying on Carmarthen Bay. ... Pembrokeshire (Welsh: ) is a county in the southwest of Wales in the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the country. ...

Although Gwen John painted and drew from an early age, her earliest surviving work dates from her nineteenth year. From 1895–98, she studied at the Slade School of Art, where her younger brother, Augustus John, had begun his studies in 1894. During this period they shared living quarters, and further reduced their expenses by subsisting on a diet of nuts and fruit. Even as a student, Augustus' brilliant draughtsmanship and personal glamour made him a celebrity, and stood in contrast to Gwen's quieter gifts and reticent demeanour. While he greatly admired her art, Augustus offered her advice which she ignored; he urged her to take a "more athletic attitude to life", and cautioned her against what he saw as the "unbecoming and unhygienic negligence" of her mode of living, but her entire life was marked by a disregard for her physical well-being.^[3] In 1898 she made her first visit to Paris with two friends from the Slade, and while there she studied under James McNeill Whistler at the Académie Carmen. She returned to London in 1899, and spent the next four years in austere circumstances. When she exhibited her work for the first time in 1900, at the New English Art Club (NEAC),^[4] her address was a derelict building where she was living illegally.^[5] The Slade School of Fine Art is an art school based at University College London in the UK. The school traces its roots back to 1868 when Felix Slade decided to establish three Chairs in Fine Art, to be based at Oxford, Cambridge and London—though with only London offering... Artist John, on a 1928 Time cover Augustus Edwin John OM, RA, (January 4, 1878 – October 31, 1961) was a Welsh painter, draughtsman, and etcher. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... Self portrait (1872) James Abbott McNeill Whistler (July 11, 1834 – July 17, 1903) was an American-born, British-based painter and etcher. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... The New English Art Club was founded in London in 1885 as an alternate venue to the Royal Academy. ...

In the autumn of 1903, she travelled to France with her friend Dorelia McNeill (who would later become Augustus John's second wife). Upon landing in Bordeaux, they set off on a walking tour with their art equipment in hand, intending to reach Rome. Sleeping in fields and living on money earned along the way by selling portrait sketches, they made it as far as Toulouse.^[6] In 1904 the two went to Paris, where John found work as an artist's model; in that same year, she began modelling for the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and became his lover. Her passion for the much older Rodin, who was the most famous artist of his time, continued unabated for the next ten years, as documented in her thousands of fervent letters to him. Rodin, despite his genuine feeling for her, eventually resorted to the use of concièrges and secretaries to keep her at a distance.^[7] For other uses, see Bordeaux (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Rome (disambiguation). ... New city flag (Occitan cross) Traditional coat of arms Motto: (Occitan: For Toulouse, always more) Location Coordinates Time Zone CET (GMT +1) Administration Country Region Midi-Pyrénées Department Haute-Garonne (31) Intercommunality Community of Agglomeration of Greater Toulouse Mayor Jean-Luc Moudenc  (UMP) (since 2004) City Statistics Land... Auguste Rodin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

Despite Gwen John's outwardly quiet manner, she was strong-willed and passionate, given to fierce attachments to both men and women that were sometimes disturbing to them.^[8] In an often-quoted letter she wrote ca. 1912 she speaks of her "desire for a more interior life",^[9] and in another undated letter she writes: "I should like to go and live somewhere where I met nobody I know till I am so strong that people and things could not effect me beyond reason."^[10] She wished also to avoid family ties; her decision to live in France may have been the result of her desire to escape the overpowering personality of her famous brother, although, as art historian David Fraser Jenkins has written, "there were few occasions when she did anything against her will, and she was the more ruthless and dominating of the two."^[11] While living in Paris she did not isolate herself, however, and she met many of the leading artistic personalities of her time, including Matisse, Picasso, Brancusi, and Rainer Maria Rilke.^[12] Henri Matisse (December 31, 1869 – November 3, 1954) was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. ... Picasso redirects here. ... Constantin Brancusi Constantin Brancusi (February 19, 1876 – March 16, 1957, originally Constantin Brâncuşi IPA: ), was a Romanian sculptor, born in Hobiţa, Gorj, near Târgu Jiu, where he placed his sculptural ensemble with The Table of Silence, The Gate of the Kiss and The Endless Column. ... Rainer Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926) is considered one of the German languages greatest 20th century poets. ...

From 1910 she lived in Meudon, a suburb of Paris where she would remain for the rest of her life; in 1926 she purchased a bungalow there. She stopped exhibiting at the NEAC in 1911, but gained an important patron in John Quinn, an American art collector who, from 1910 until his death in 1924, purchased the majority of the works that Gwen John sold.^[13] As her affair with Rodin drew to a close she sought comfort in Catholicism, and around 1913 she was received into the Church.^[14] As an obligation to the Dominican Sisters of Charity at Meudon, she began a series of painted portraits of Mère Marie Poussepin (1653–1744), who founded their order. These paintings, based on a prayer card, established a format—the female figure in three-quarter length seated pose—which became characteristic of her mature style.^[15] Meudon is a suburb of Paris in the Hauts-de-Seine département in northern France. ... John Quinn (1870-1924) was an Irish-American corporate lawyer in New York, who for a time was an important patron of major figures of post-impressionism and literary modernism, and collector in particular of original manuscripts. ... As a Christian ecclesiastical term, Catholic—from the Greek adjective , meaning general or universal[1]—is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as follows: ~Church, (originally) whole body of Christians; ~, belonging to or in accord with (a) this, (b) the church before separation into Greek or Eastern and Latin or...

She exhibited in Paris for the first time in 1919 at the Salon d'Automne, and exhibited regularly until the mid-1920s, after which time she became increasingly reclusive and painted less. She had only one solo exhibition in her lifetime, in London in 1926.^[16] In that same year she met Véra Oumançoff, sister-in-law of Jacques Maritain, and began a romantic relationship with her which lasted until Oumançoff, finding John's attentions oppressive, terminated it in 1930.^[17] First Salon dAutomne Catalog In 1903, the first Salon dAutomne (Fall Salon) was organized as a reaction to the conservative policies of the official Paris Salon. ... Jacques Maritain Jacques Maritain (November 18, 1882 – April 28, 1973) was a French Catholic philosopher. ...

Her last dated work is a drawing of March 20, 1933, and no evidence suggests that she drew or painted during the remainder of her life.^[18] On September 10, 1939, she wrote her will and then travelled to Dieppe, where she collapsed and was hospitalized. She died there on September 18, 1939. is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Dieppe is the name of several places and events: Dieppe, France (pop. ... is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Art

Cat Cleaning Itself (1904-1908), pencil and watercolor

Gwen John's work consists almost entirely of small-scale portraits and still-lifes. Her portraits (usually of anonymous sitters) favored seated women in a three-quarter length format, with their hands in their laps. John painted slowly, often returning to a theme repeatedly. She preferred painting of reduced tone and subtle colour relationships, in contrast to her brother's far more vivid palette. In addition to studio work, she made many sketches and watercolors of women and children in church. Unlike her oil paintings of solitary women, these sketches frequently depict their subjects from behind, and in groups. She also made many sketches of her cats. Aside from two etchings she drew in 1910, she made no prints. Watercolor is a painting technique making use of water-soluble pigments that are either transparent or opaque and are formulated with gum to bond the pigment to the paper. ... Christ Preaching, known as The Hundred Guilder print; etching c1648 by Rembrandt Etching is the process of using strong acid to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio in the metal (the original process - in modern manufacturing other chemicals may be used...

Though she was once overshadowed by her popular brother, critical opinion now tends to view Gwen as the more talented of the two.^[19] Augustus himself had predicted this reversal, saying "In 50 years' time I will be known as the brother of Gwen John."^[20]

Legacy

John's pictures have been placed in many public collections, with some of the best examples in the National Gallery of Wales and the Tate. The National Museum and Gallery of Wales (Welsh: Amgueddfa ac Oriel Genedlaethol Cymru) is a museum and art gallery in Cardiff, Wales. ... The Tate Gallery in the United Kingdom is a network of four galleries: Tate Britain (opened 1897), Tate Liverpool (1988), Tate St Ives (1993), Tate Modern (2000), with a complementary website Tate Online (1998). ...

Still Lives, by Candida Cave, is a three woman play about Gwen, Ida (Augustus John's wife) and Dorelia (Augustus John's mistress).

Notes

The Convalescent (ca. 1923-1924) is one of a series of ten similar portraits.

Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 276th day of the year (277th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 253rd day of the year (254th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• Foster, Alicia, & John, Gwen. (1999). Gwen John. British artists. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN 069102944X
• Langdale, Cecily, Jenkins, David F., & John, Gwen. (1986). Gwen John (1876-1939) an interior life. New York: Rizzoli. ISBN 0847806812
• Langdale, Cecily (1987). Gwen John. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300038682
• Schwartz, Sanford, 2001, "To Be a Pilgrim", The New York Review of Books , November 29, 2001: pp. 36–38.

External links

• Tate Gallery collection of John's works
• An article about her life from the Catholic magazine Crisis
• BBC Wales article by James Nichols
• Article at Swansea Heritage site
• Welsh Heroes
• Her painting The Precious Book
• Her painting The Nun