Gwendolen Mary John was born in Wales, the daughter of a grumpy lawyer and a mother who was ill and had little time at home. So her aunts, members of the Christian Free Church of the Salvation Army, looked after Gwen, her sister and her two brothers. All children were encouraged in their artistic talents, but the mother died very early when Gwen was only eight years old. The family then moved within Wales, in the coastal town of Tenby, where Gwen often sketched seagulls and sea animals, but Gwen's oldest surviving work dates from 1895 when she was 19 years old.
Gwen attended the only art school in the United Kingdom where women were admitted, the school was based on French methods. Under the influential cartoonist and art professor Henry Tonks she learned to draw figures, lived with her brother Augustus and is said to have lived on nuts and fruit alone for reasons of cost. Through her brother she met other, later influential artists, including his wife Ida Nettleship and the portrait artist Arthur Ambrose McEvoy. Her brother's drawing skills and his attitude put the reserved sister in the shade, even though he admired her work. Gwen traveled to Paris, where she studied at James McNeill Whistler's Academy, and after her return she exhibited her works for the first time at the New English Art Club. Financial success failed to materialize, so that the young Gwen even had to live as a squatter in run-down buildings. She returned to France and worked as a model. This is how she met her lover, the much older sculptor Auguste Rodin, one of the most famous artists of the time. Not only him, but also Matisse, Picasso and Rainer Maria Rilke stayed in the French capital at this time. John moved to a suburb of Paris and, despite many important acquaintances, worked, preferably in seclusion. After the end of their affair she increasingly devoted herself to the Catholic faith. She no longer needed to work as a model, and found her most important patron in the art collector John Quinn. Because of her perfectionism she largely refrained from exhibitions, but one of her works found its way to the Armory Show in New York. Among her later works are mainly portraits of unknown women, sitting with their hands on their laps. She had her only solo exhibition in London, before that she had been able to show works in the famous Paris Autumn Salon. She died in 1939, according to some statements she had starved herself to death.
While she stood in her brother's shadow during his lifetime, today's critics define her as the more talented of the two. Many of her works can be found at the National Museum Cardiff and Tate Britain
Gwendolen Mary John was born in Wales, the daughter of a grumpy lawyer and a mother who was ill and had little time at home. So her aunts, members of the Christian Free Church of the Salvation Army, looked after Gwen, her sister and her two brothers. All children were encouraged in their artistic talents, but the mother died very early when Gwen was only eight years old. The family then moved within Wales, in the coastal town of Tenby, where Gwen often sketched seagulls and sea animals, but Gwen's oldest surviving work dates from 1895 when she was 19 years old.
Gwen attended the only art school in the United Kingdom where women were admitted, the school was based on French methods. Under the influential cartoonist and art professor Henry Tonks she learned to draw figures, lived with her brother Augustus and is said to have lived on nuts and fruit alone for reasons of cost. Through her brother she met other, later influential artists, including his wife Ida Nettleship and the portrait artist Arthur Ambrose McEvoy. Her brother's drawing skills and his attitude put the reserved sister in the shade, even though he admired her work. Gwen traveled to Paris, where she studied at James McNeill Whistler's Academy, and after her return she exhibited her works for the first time at the New English Art Club. Financial success failed to materialize, so that the young Gwen even had to live as a squatter in run-down buildings. She returned to France and worked as a model. This is how she met her lover, the much older sculptor Auguste Rodin, one of the most famous artists of the time. Not only him, but also Matisse, Picasso and Rainer Maria Rilke stayed in the French capital at this time. John moved to a suburb of Paris and, despite many important acquaintances, worked, preferably in seclusion. After the end of their affair she increasingly devoted herself to the Catholic faith. She no longer needed to work as a model, and found her most important patron in the art collector John Quinn. Because of her perfectionism she largely refrained from exhibitions, but one of her works found its way to the Armory Show in New York. Among her later works are mainly portraits of unknown women, sitting with their hands on their laps. She had her only solo exhibition in London, before that she had been able to show works in the famous Paris Autumn Salon. She died in 1939, according to some statements she had starved herself to death.
While she stood in her brother's shadow during his lifetime, today's critics define her as the more talented of the two. Many of her works can be found at the National Museum Cardiff and Tate Britain
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