Fembio Special: Famous Lesbians
Gwen John
(Gwendolen Mary John)
born on June 22, 1876 in Haverfordwest, Wales
died on September 13, 1939 in Dieppe, France
British painter
85th anniversary of her death on September 13, 2024
Biography
Gwen's younger and initially more famous brother Augustus had actually always claimed that she was the much better painter. But public recognition of her work was a long time coming - which was certainly not due to its quality, but to Gwen John's particular way of working and living.
Her artistically gifted mother died early; Gwen and Augustus, never without their sketchpads, could thus roam freely. In 1895, Gwen followed her brother to the Slade School in London for three years, and four months of studying with Whistler in Paris enabled her to develop the sense for color tones that he had praised and which she would continue to refine throughout her life.
In 1904, Gwen modeled for the elderly Rodin in Paris, and the intense love affair that developed between the two was to consume her entire being. Rodin soon began to view her passion as annoyingly obsessive and saw her less and less often. She continued to write him until 1917, signing each of the 2000 letters as “your obedient little model” Marie or Maria, and never as Gwen.
In 1927 she developed a second close bond. There were religious overtones to her feelings for Véra Oumançoff, the sister-in-law of the Catholic philosopher Jacques Maritain. Vera too was asked to call her—a wounded little creature in need of love—Marie. Again, the affection became oppressive, and she was thus only allowed to accompany Véra home on Mondays after mass. She presented Véra with a small picture each week. These dessins de lundi (= Monday drawings) were stuffed carelessly into a cupboard and only found by chance after 1960.
In the last years of her life, Gwen slipped into a deeper and deeper isolation. Her painting became more and more concentrated in the solitude—the gouaches more monochrome, the same subjects reduced again and again until they were only 5 x 5 cm. She moved into a dilapidated garden shed in 1936 and neglected her health even more than before. Yet she remained confident of her work as an artist. In the end, the depressions were overpowering. Terminally ill, she traveled to Dieppe and collapsed on the street. Her grave is unknown.
During their research a BBC team was assisted by a great-niece of the artist, Sara John, and the entry for Gwen John's grave in Dieppe was finally discovered in 2014. She was buried in the Janval cemetery under her real name Mary John. A memorial plaque commemorating the artist was erected in April 2015.
(Text from 1988; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2024.
Please consult the German version for additional information, pictures, sources, videos, and bibliography.)
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