Gwen John, elder sister to Augustus John, was born in Haverfordwest in south-west Wales in 1876. She studied at the Slade School alongside her brother from 1894 to 1897, she also attended Whistler’s school in Paris until 1898. Gwen John exhibited her work with major galleries, including the New English Arts Club, the Société des Artistes Français and the Salon d'Automne. She is known today as one of Britain's most important modern female painters.
Gwen John developed a curiosity about religion, and the Catholic Church, leading to her first communion in 1913. A frequent visitor to a nearby convent in Meudon, at this time John began a series of church watercolours which would continue to occupy her for the final twenty years of her life. These featured one or several female figures, seen most often from the rear, a depiction of an essentially private moment of reflection or prayer. She would sit in the back of the Meudon church, sketching in pencil, waiting to add the watercolour until her return to the studio.
‘J’aime prier à l’Eglise comme tout le monde mais mon spirit n’est pas capable de prieur our longtemps à la fois… Se je retranche tous cela il n’y aurait pas assez de bonheur dans ma vie’ (I like to pray in Church like everyone but my spirit is not capable of praying for a long time at once – if I remove all that time there would not be enough happiness in my life ) – Gwen John quoted in D. Fraser Jenkins and C. Stephens (Ed.), Gwen John and Augustus John, Tate Publishing, London, 2004, p. 158.
John’s works are characterised by the stillness of the sitters, the simplicity of her compositions and the desaturated colours. Her works maintain an attentiveness to her subject while emphasising the atmosphere of a silent room. Less focussed on narrative, John often represented herself, her cat, and the interior of her room as though separate from the outside world and free of unwelcome intrusions.