Gwendolen Mary John (1876 - 1939)

Born 22 Jun 1876 in Haverfordwest, Wales, UK

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Biography

Gwendolen Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a famous Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Although she was overshadowed during her lifetime by her brother Augustus John, her reputation has grown steadily since her death.

Gwen John was born in Haverfordwest, Wales, the second of four children of Edwin William John and his wife Augusta (née Smith):

1. Thornton John;
2. Gwen
3. Augustus and
4. Winifred.

Edwin John was a solicitor whose dour temperament cast a chill over his family, and Augusta was often absent from the children owing to ill health, leaving her two sisters—stern Salvationists—to take her place in the household.

Augusta was an amateur watercolourist, and both parents encouraged the children's interest in literature and art. Her mother died when she was eight years of age.

Regarding her mother's death and the loss of her influence, her brother, Augustus, later wrote: "My mother would no doubt have been helpful, but she died when I was a small child, after, I fear, a very tearful existence."

Following the mother’s premature death in 1884, the family moved to Tenby in Pembrokeshire, Wales, where the early education of Gwen and her sister Winifred was provided by governesses.

In 1904 in Paris she began modelling for the sculptor Auguste Rodin, and became his lover.

In 1910 she found living quarters in Meudon, a suburb of Paris where she would remain for the rest of her life.

Sources

• Wikipedia article: Gwen John