This week sees the opening of Gwen John: Strange Beauties at National Museum Cardiff, the first retrospective of the artist’s work in over 40 years. Born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire in 1876, Gwen John studied at the Slade School in London, one of the first generation of women to receive a formal art education. In 1904 she moved to Paris where she lived and worked for the rest of her life.
Marking 150 years since the artist’s birth, Strange Beauties showcases work from John’s early years in Wales through to late works inspired by her religious beliefs, French modernism, and her surroundings in the Parisian suburb of Meudon. Including rarely seen works from Amgueddfa Cymru’s collection alongside major international loans, the exhibition also features two paintings acquired thanks to the Derek Williams Trust: A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris and The Japanese Doll.
A Corner of the Artist’s Room in Paris was acquired by Amgeuddfa Cymru in 1995. It has a unique place in the museum’s partnership with the Derek Williams Trust as the first of many important works of modern and contemporary art to be acquired for the national collection with the Trust’s assistance. Painted between 1907 and 1909, it shows John’s room in the attic of 87 rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris and is a snapshot of her life and her space: her book lies open, her coat draped over the chair. It is one of a number of interiors John painted during this period, repeatedly using her personal possessions.
In 2003, the Trust helped Amgueddfa Cymru to acquire John’s still life The Japanese Doll. Also an interior scene but dating from the 1920s, it was painted in John’s house in the rue Terre Neuve in Meudon, where she had moved in 1911. Elements of the composition, such as the low table and the sewing box can be seen in numerous images from this period, but the Japanese doll is a rare motif in her work.
Together, the two works speak to the evolution of John’s personal style through her years in Paris. In A Corner of the Artist’s Room, the subject is the focus. Although the artist is not physically present, the painting functions as a self-portrait of sorts, mediated not through her physical likeness but via her private space. In contrast, The Japanese Doll reflects the artist’s evolving and complex preoccupation with form, tone and brushwork, a gradual but determined shift in focus towards the formal qualities of painting and the language of modernism.
Gwen John: Strange Beauties has been developed by Amgueddfa Cymru in partnership with National Galleries of Scotland, Yale Center for British Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC.
7 February – 28 June 2025. Tickets available here.
Both images © Amgueddfa Cymru
