April - Week 1
Written 06/04/2024
Who am I studying?
So this month I am studying a Welsh artist, Gwen John.
Short biography
She was born in 1876 in Haverfordwest in Wales but moved to Tenby when she was 8 years old after her mother died (despite her early death her mother had an influence on her, being an amateur painter herself). She had a younger brother Augustus who was also an artist (and in their lifetimes, by far the better known of the two - reminds me of the campaign around the Enola Holmes film of highlighting the overshadowed sister of famous men, you can read more about thathere), they even roomed together at the same art school! (The Slade School Art of London - the first art school in the UK to allow women to enroll)
Both Gwen and her brother moved to France after art school where Gwen would stay for the rest of her life. She made money being an artist's model for another artist Auguste Rodin and they had a decade long love affair (after they broke up she converted to Catholicism, I'm not sure if they are related or not but certainly... interesting)
A more useful male connection was John Quinn, who became her patron in 1911 so she could fully devote herself to her work (most of her art seems to have been done in the 1910s and 1920s for likely this reason)
She died in 1936, having been very reclusive in her later years (as is seems is sadly the case for a lot of artists)
Why I chose her
I will admit my FIRST reason for choosing her is simply due to the fact that she was Welsh, and I am also Welsh so she was a bit closer to home than my other choices. In fact, a few weeks ago I was able to grab a copy of a mini book called 'Gwen John - a selection' from the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff (and I think they have some of her work on display too) which was very helpful when looking for pictures of her work that I might like.
Though I will say, having learned more about her other things struck out to me. For one she LOVED cats and did a LOT of painting and drawings of her cats (a cat lady one might say). She was also bisexual, while her best known lover was a man she also had equally dissapointing romances with women. But, the thing that really sparked my interest was her choice of subject matter, besides her cats her main subjects were the things around her and especially the women around her - not models or aristocrats, but the ordinary women that she lived with in her community (often in a back view as she observed them in church). As someone who struggles with my own sense of self and belonging, simply painting/drawing what I see in my real life in front of me seems so... odd. To be in the moment like that...
Examples of her work
So after she converted to Catholicism, she often painted nuns as she did live near a convent (I assume not a massively cloistered one?)
She did many drawings (that she would adapt into paintings) while at church, some considered this rude but it seems like she found it easier to concentrate if she was also drawing?
She had a lot of cats in her life (I'm not sure the name of this one), look at how cute it is!
She didn't always paint living subjects, like her where she painted her work environment (I like the very faint outside view)
This is one of her earliest surviving pieces, done in the mid 1890s when she was in her late teens/early 20s. I like the vigorousness of this drawing, capturing her sister (who was a violinist btw) but not getting too bogged down in 'perfection' (unlike herself later in life, where she was a massive perfectionist)
This is a 'typical' Gwen John (insomuch as she had a 'typical') being a woman painted with muted colours (and often with a slight glaze that makes her seem slightly off-focus)
Links to more info about her