Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
No Known Copyright
Accession Number:
B1993.30.14
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
religious | nun | brushstrokes | window | apron (main garment) | habit | study (visual work) | figure study | book | furniture | prayer
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Figuring Women - The Female in Modern British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-03-28 - 2008-06-08)20th Century Paintings and Sculpture (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-01-27 - 2000-04-30)Juxtapositions (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-11-19 - 1998-01-04)
Publications:
Cecily Langdale, Gwen John : With a Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings and a Selection of the Drawings, , Yale University Press, New Haven, 1987, pp. 51, 59, 60.., No. 43, pl. 199, NJ18 J594 A12 L25 (YCBA)Paul Mellon's Legacy : a passion for British art [large print labels], , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2007, v. 1, N5220 M552 P381 2007 OVERSIZE (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
Gwen John trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in London from 1895 to 1898, a school noted for its progressive teaching and acceptance of female students. She moved to Paris in 1903, where she remained for the rest of her life. A reserved but tenacious personality, she formed few but intense relationships, including with the poet Rainer Rilke and sculptor Auguste Rodin, for whom she served as the model for his unfinished monument to Whistler. She converted to Catholicism in 1913 during a time of intense anticlericalism from France’s Third Republic. Portraits of nuns featured regularly in her studies of the life in and around the convent of the Dominican Sisters of Charity in Meudon, the suburb of Paris where she lived. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2020
Provenance:
Created by Gwen John (1876–1939), the artist; bequest to her nephew, Edwin John (1905–1978) [1][a]; assigned to Matthiesen Gallery Ltd., London, 1940 [2]; assigned to Faerber and Maison, London, 1963 [3]; acquired by Maynard Walker Gallery, New York, 1965 [4]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), 1966; by whom given to the Yale Center for British Art, October 1993. Notes: --- [1] After Gwen John's death in 1939, her nephew, Edwin John (1905–1978), traveled to Meudon, retrieved her remaining works from her Rue Terre Neuve home, and brought them back to England. The fourth son of artist Augustus John (1878–1961), Edwin followed the artistic paths of both his father and aunt, becoming a watercolorist. He maintained a close relationship with his aunt until her death and was the sole executor of her estate. [2] In August 1940, Matthiesen Gallery held a memorial exhibition of John’s paintings and drawings at Wildenstein & Co., London. This exhibition marks the beginning of Matthiesen Gallery’s representation of the Gwen John Estate. [3] Following the Matthiesen Gallery’s closure in 1963, former associate Stefanie Maison represented the Gwen John Estate as Faerber and Maison until 1973, and, thereafter, under her own name. [4] Maynard Walker (1896 –1985) was an American art dealer and collector who established the Maynard Walker Gallery in New York around 1935. Walker likely purchased this painting following Faerber and Maison’s 1964 Gwen John exhibition held from November 13 to December 12, 1964. The painting was listed as no. 6 in the exhibition catalog. Citations: --- [a] Cecily Langdale, Gwen John: With a Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings and a Selection of the Drawings (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1987): 121.