Gwen
John

Mary John Gwendolen (Eng. Gwendolen Mary John, June 22, 1876, Haverfordwest, Wales - September 18, 1939, Dieppe) is a Welsh artist who lived most of her life in France. The sister of the artist Augustus John.

In 1895, Gwen John enters the Slade School of Fine Arts in London, where he studied until 1898. In 1899 he left for Paris, where he took lessons from Whistler for 4 months. In the same year he returned to London. In 1900, the artist first exhibited her work in the New English Art Club (uses its services until 1911).

In the autumn of 1903, Gwen went to France again, living in Bordeaux and in Toulouse. In 1904, in Paris, he began to pose as a model for Auguste Rodin, as a result of which love relationships were established between them. During this period, Gwen met with many prominent figures of European culture - with Matisse, Picasso, Brancusi. For many years, the artist has been closely associated with the German poet Rainer M. Rilke. In 1910, after a break in relations with Roden, Gwen John settled in Médon, where he spent practically the rest of his life. Here she lived alone, with her cats whom she loved to draw. Soon after moving to Medon, the artist turns to Catholicism, and in 1913 reconciles with the church. In her diary of that time one can find numerous prayers; she calls herself "the little artist of the Lord." In the future, often works by performing the artistic orders of the church.

In Paris, Gwen John exhibited her canvases at the Autumn Salon in 1919, and then regularly, until the second half of the 1920s. The artist is known first of all for her excellently painted female portraits.