John, Gwen (1876-1939), was a British painter, known for her portraits. The subjects of her paintings are often single figures of young girls or nuns in interior settings. Many are self-portraits. Unlike her brother, the artist Augustus John, she lived the life of a recluse. She painted with great sensitivity, using delicate grayish tones. Her work was not widely recognized in her lifetime, but her reputation has risen greatly since the 1960’s.
Gwendolyn Mary John was born on June 22, 1876, in Haverfordwest, Dyfed, Wales. She studied at the Slade School in London from 1895 to 1898 and then with American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler in Paris. She settled permanently in France in 1904, where she became the model and lover of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. She died on Sept. 3, 1939.
