Her brother Augustus is better known today, but in the early decades of the 20th century Gwen John (1876-1939) was equally, if not more, respected as a painter (and not just as model and muse to her lover Rodin). Particularly in Paris, where she made her home, and in New York, where she was represented by pioneering art dealer John Quinn, she was acclaimed for the sureness of her technique and the haunting psychological penetration with which she captured the inner lives of her subjects. Drawing on her letters and journals, novelist and poet Sue Roe is able to chronicle the evolution of John's artistic, emotional, and spiritual strivings in fascinating detail. Rodin encouraged her work, but Roe perceptively notes that John's passionate desire to submit to the sculptor warred with her "profound sense of independence [and] need to access and control her own muse." She was sustained by a series of intimate friendships with other women (including her brother's wife and mistress), as well as a burgeoning Catholic faith. Far from being the eccentric recluse of posthumous legend, John exhibited and sold her work regularly and had an active social life. The stillness and harmony of her work, Roe convincingly argues, were the product of enormous self-discipline and restraint imposed on a turbulent psyche. This sensitive, sympathetic biography arouses our admiration and awe for a woman who "lived uniquely, with dedication and daring." --Wendy Smith


From Publishers Weekly
British novelist, poet and critic Roe (Estella) offers a biography of the painter John (1876-1939), who focused on Whistler-like portraits and spent some time as mistress to the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Once undervalued because of the celebrity of her now-neglected painter brother Augustus John (1878-1961), Gwen John is an utterly British subject in her lifelong shyness and reticence, yet offers a welcome alternative for Brit-o-phile readers weary of the Bloomsbury circle (Roe's Writing and Gender: Virginia Woolf's Writing Practice among the plethora of titles). This new book tells more than most readers will want to know about degrees of feeling in John's relationship with Rodin and her emotions when she loses her cat, Quinet. Despite the book's subtitle, there is mostly vague and generalized analysis of the paintings themselves: "...her work gained a strong, fluid sense of immediacy and an intimacy between artist and subject," is a typical assay. The many women Johns painted reveal some interesting psychological states, including bleary depression, sexual repression and clear excitement sometimes all in the same image. But Roe gets too caught up in landlords' bills and the like, and fails to focus clearly on John's highest achievements (shown in 16 pages of b&w and color images). As a modern woman artist, Johns had a life about one-tenth as interesting as that of contemporaries like Mina Loy, but this recognition of her contribution should at least restore her to the era's artistic ferment. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Gwen John (1876-1939) was born in Wales and schooled at the Slade School during its halcyon days, but she lived in Paris for most of her life. An excellent draughtsman appreciated for her intimate portraits and spaces, she produced work that echoed her character, artistic sensibility, and conversion to Roman Catholicism. Reflective of her personality, her enigmatic paintings coupled with her tortured personal relationships create an artistic legacy resembling that of Frida Kahlo. Novelist and critic Roe's captivating contribution to the scholarship on John relies upon primary sources, primarily letters and documents from the artist's estate, the Mus e Rodin, and the Tate Archives. This full-length biography provides more depth than Mary Taubman's Gwen John: The Artist and Her Work (1986), which consists mostly of color plates, and it far outclasses Susan Chitty's Gwen John, 1876-1939 (1981. o.p.). Chitty focused on biography at the expense of art history, while Roe balances biography with a critical analysis of John's work. She also considers John's own virtues as an artist well beyond her secondary roles as the sister of painter Augustus John, Rodin's model and mistress, and Whistler's student the focus of previous narratives. Roe's blend of insight and eloquent narrative merges into a thoughtful, enduring masterpiece. Highly recommended for all libraries, this work will likely become a much-read classic. Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, East Tennessee State Univ. Lib., Johnson City Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* Artist Augustus John's reputation has endured whereas that of his artist sister, Gwen, has faded. Although she is remembered as an eccentric British recluse living outside Paris, Gwen John, as novelist, poet, critic, and first-time biographer Roe discovered, was actually a profoundly creative, unconventional, technically accomplished, emotionally subtle, and spiritually oriented painter who captured her subjects' inner lives in richly atmospheric "interiorist" portraits. She was also a model for and lover of the sculptor Rodin, who encouraged her work and paid her rent. Roe's identification with and deep respect for her venturesome subject, as well as her narrative's novelistic energy, add zest and conviction to her meticulous yet fluent account of an intense and demanding life. She vividly chronicles John's bohemian childhood and her mother's early death, which inculcated John with a self-reliance that inspired intrepid travels and living arrangements, and a love of solitude. Roe's adept referencing of excerpted letters and notebooks reveals the depth of John's self-immolating passion for the indifferent Rodin and, more significantly, her devotion to spiritual growth and artistic exploration. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Book Description
A revealing, animated biography of a sexual and intellectual rebel and a great painter

In 1942, at the height of his fame, Augustus John predicted that 'fifty years from now I shall be known as the brother of Gwen John'. Gwen John (1876-1939) is indeed now recognised as a great artistic innovator, yet for years her life remained shrouded in the myth of the solitary recluse. Born in Pembrokeshire, Gwen followed her brother to the Slade. Her future was bound up with Augustus, his women and his coteries, yet she was also daring and highly original, living determinedly in her own way.

Defiant yet shy, she painted and modelled amid the Bohemian circles of early twentieth-century Paris and embarked on a long, intense love affair with France's most legendary artistic figure, the sculptor Rodin. A friend of Symbolist poets and post-Impressionist painters, later she turned increasingly to religion, achieving a deep serenity which masked her inner turbulence and creating her haunting paintings, described as delicate and austere, restrained and still.

Based on her lively and passionate unpublished letters and lavishly illustrated, this vivid new biography challenges our prejudices about the ways we evaluate women artists and finally uncovers the life of this ardent and complicated personality, one of the finest artists of her day.



About the Author
Sue Roe is a novelist, poet and critic. A former lecturer in creative writing at the University of East Anglia, she now lives in Sussex, England. This is her first biography.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"In 1942, at the height of his fame, Augustus John predicted that 'fifty years after my death I shall be remembered as Gwen John's brother'. Gwen John (1876-1939) is indeed now recognised as a great artistic innovator, yet for years her life remained shrouded in the myth of the solitary recluse. Born in Pembrokeshire, Gwen followed her brother to the Slade. She would always be bound up with Augustus, his women and his coteries, yet she was also daring and highly original, living determinedly in her own way." Based on her lively and passionate unpublished letters, and copiously illlustrated, this new biography challenges our prejudices about the ways we evaluate women artists and finally uncovers the life of this ardent and complicated personality.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

British novelist, poet and critic Roe (Estella) offers a biography of the painter John (1876-1939), who focused on Whistler-like portraits and spent some time as mistress to the great French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Once undervalued because of the celebrity of her now-neglected painter brother Augustus John (1878-1961), Gwen John is an utterly British subject in her lifelong shyness and reticence, yet offers a welcome alternative for Brit-o-phile readers weary of the Bloomsbury circle (Roe's Writing and Gender: Virginia Woolf's Writing Practice among the plethora of titles). This new book tells more than most readers will want to know about degrees of feeling in John's relationship with Rodin and her emotions when she loses her cat, Quinet. Despite the book's subtitle, there is mostly vague and generalized analysis of the paintings themselves: "...her work gained a strong, fluid sense of immediacy and an intimacy between artist and subject," is a typical assay. The many women Johns painted reveal some interesting psychological states, including bleary depression, sexual repression and clear excitement sometimes all in the same image. But Roe gets too caught up in landlords' bills and the like, and fails to focus clearly on John's highest achievements (shown in 16 pages of b&w and color images). As a modern woman artist, Johns had a life about one-tenth as interesting as that of contemporaries like Mina Loy, but this recognition of her contribution should at least restore her to the era's artistic ferment. (Nov.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

Gwen John (1876-1939) was born in Wales and schooled at the Slade School during its halcyon days, but she lived in Paris for most of her life. An excellent draughtsman appreciated for her intimate portraits and spaces, she produced work that echoed her character, artistic sensibility, and conversion to Roman Catholicism. Reflective of her personality, her enigmatic paintings coupled with her tortured personal relationships create an artistic legacy resembling that of Frida Kahlo. Novelist and critic Roe's captivating contribution to the scholarship on John relies upon primary sources, primarily letters and documents from the artist's estate, the Mus e Rodin, and the Tate Archives. This full-length biography provides more depth than Mary Taubman's Gwen John: The Artist and Her Work (1986), which consists mostly of color plates, and it far outclasses Susan Chitty's Gwen John, 1876-1939 (1981. o.p.). Chitty focused on biography at the expense of art history, while Roe balances biography with a critical analysis of John's work. She also considers John's own virtues as an artist well beyond her secondary roles as the sister of painter Augustus John, Rodin's model and mistress, and Whistler's student the focus of previous narratives. Roe's blend of insight and eloquent narrative merges into a thoughtful, enduring masterpiece. Highly recommended for all libraries, this work will likely become a much-read classic. Rebecca Tolley-Stokes, East Tennessee State Univ. Lib., Johnson City Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews