Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
No Known Copyright
Accession Number:
B1993.30.13
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
portrait | hat | window | woman
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
Augustus John and Gwen John (Tate Britain, 2004-09-29 - 2005-01-09)Augustus John and Gwen John (National Museum Wales, 2005-02-12 - 2005-05-15)Revisiting Traditions [BAC 20th century painting & sculpture] (Yale Center for British Art, 2002-04-30 - 2005-05-18)Bloomsbury Contemporaries (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-05-20 - 2000-09-03)20th Century Paintings and Sculpture (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-01-27 - 2000-04-30)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1998-05-01 - 1998-07-05)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Queensland Art Gallery, 1998-07-15 - 1998-09-06)This Other Eden : British Paintings from the Paul Mellon Collection at Yale (Art Gallery of South Australia, 1998-09-16 - 1998-11-15)
Publications:
Ian Collins, Modernism and Memory: Rhoda Pritzker and the Art of Collecting, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2016, pp. 103, 122 n. 7, N6768 .M635 2016 OVERSIZE (YCBA)Martina Droth, My favourite painting : Young Woman by Gwen John, Country Life, vol. 224, May 7, 2025, p. 154, S3 .C68 Oversize (YCBA)David Fraser Jenkins, Gwen John and Augustus John, Tate Publishing, London, 2004, p. 153, no. 98, NJ18 J594 G84 + 2004 oversize (YCBA)Cecily Langdale, Gwen John : An Interior Life, , Phaidon, London, 1985, p. 77, NJ18 J594 L25 (YCBA)Cecily Langdale, Gwen John : With a Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings and a Selection of the Drawings, , Yale University Press, New Haven, 1987, p. 88, 98, 163, no. 101, pl. 150, NJ18 J594 A12 L25 (YCBA)Julia Marciari-Alexander, This other Eden : Paintings from the Yale Center for British Art, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1998, p. 190, no. 79, ND1314.3 Y36 1998 (YCBA)Charlotte Mullins, Charlotte Mullins comments on Young Woman, Country Life, vol. 224, May 7, 2025, p. 154, S3 .C68 Oversize (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:
Quiet, subdued, and intense, this view of a young woman in an undefined interior typifies Gwen John’s artistic vision in the years around 1920. Since 1915 she had been simplifying her paintings, paring down the details of the setting and monumentalizing her sitters. Little is known about the model for the present work, although she appears in the majority of John’s paintings from this period. She lived near the artist in Meudon, a suburb southwest of Paris. Since her actual name is no longer known, she is generally called the Convalescent model, having in the late 1910s modeled for John’s series of pictures all of which carry that title. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2010
Provenance:
Created by Gwen John (1876–1939), the artist; bequest to her nephew, Edwin John, Cornwall, England (1905–1978) [1][a]; assigned to Matthiesen Gallery Ltd., London, 1940 [2]; purchased by Paul Mellon (1907–1999), 1961 [b]; 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. 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. [b] Ibid, 163.