Nationality: British
Gwen John was born in South Wales in 1876. Though elder than her brother Augustus, it was only after Augustus's gentle bullying that Gwen was finally allowed to follow him to the Slade to study . Partly to escape comparisons with her notorious, but extraordinarily talented brother, she left London to study in Paris at Whistler's recently opened Academie Carmen. Apart from only a few brief visits, France was to be her home until her death in 1939.
The years she spent as Rodin's model and mistress (1905-1911) left her with an extraordinary hunger for self-discipline and this was to shape the rest of her life. As her relationship with the aging sculptor began to fade so the intensity of feeling she felt for Rodin was transferred to the Catholic Church and from 1913 to her death in 1939, she observed an increasingly strict regime. Her work from the 1910's and 'twenties was characterised by a very limited range of subjects, in particular the nuns and orphans of the nearby Church in Meudon. By the 1920's she completed fewer oil paintings, finding the spontaneity of watercolour and gouache more suited to her art: ' I think a picture ought to be done in 1 sitting or at most 2. For that one must paint a lot of canvases probably and waste them'.
During the later 1920's and 1930's she developed a much looser, more painterly style. Much of this development was due to the choice of paper:, "I had a little Japanese paper - I cut it all up in their sizes thinking I could get as much as I wanted but yesterday when I went to Paris for it I found it was all sold. It is a great misfortune. It is so exquisite for my drawings. the coulour doesn't run into each other. The paper absorbes the colour and each touch of the brush has to be the final, no retouching can be done.'.
She died, returning to England in 1939. By this time her self-imposed regime was so severe that, according one niece, it seemed she had a death wish. Everything in her life was subservient to her art - yet what was so unusual was how little attempt she ever made to exhibit her work in her later life. At times it can seem that her painting was merely a private act of devotion.
'I cannot imagine why my vision will have some value in the world - and yet I know it will. I think I will count because I am patient and recueillé.'.
Gwen John was born in South Wales in 1876. Though elder than her brother Augustus, it was only after Augustus's gentle bullying that Gwen was finally allowed to follow him to the Slade to study . Partly to escape comparisons with her notorious, but extraordinarily talented brother, she left London to study in Paris at Whistler's recently opened Academie Carmen. Apart from only a few brief visits, France was to be her home until her death in 1939.
The years she spent as Rodin's model and mistress (1905-1911) left her with an extraordinary hunger for self-discipline and this was to shape the rest of her life. As her relationship with the aging sculptor began to fade so the intensity of feeling she felt for Rodin was transferred to the Catholic Church and from 1913 to her death in 1939, she observed an increasingly strict regime. Her work from the 1910's and 'twenties was characterised by a very limited range of subjects, in particular the nuns and orphans of the nearby Church in Meudon. By the 1920's she completed fewer oil paintings, finding the spontaneity of watercolour and gouache more suited to her art: ' I think a picture ought to be done in 1 sitting or at most 2. For that one must paint a lot of canvases probably and waste them'.
During the later 1920's and 1930's she developed a much looser, more painterly style. Much of this development was due to the choice of paper:, "I had a little Japanese paper - I cut it all up in their sizes thinking I could get as much as I wanted but yesterday when I went to Paris for it I found it was all sold. It is a great misfortune. It is so exquisite for my drawings. the coulour doesn't run into each other. The paper absorbes the colour and each touch of the brush has to be the final, no retouching can be done.'.
She died, returning to England in 1939. By this time her self-imposed regime was so severe that, according one niece, it seemed she had a death wish. Everything in her life was subservient to her art - yet what was so unusual was how little attempt she ever made to exhibit her work in her later life. At times it can seem that her painting was merely a private act of devotion.
'I cannot imagine why my vision will have some value in the world - and yet I know it will. I think I will count because I am patient and recueillé.'.
Biography