Gwendolen Mary John was born in Wales, the daughter of a grumpy lawyer and a mother who was ill and had little time at home. So her aunts, members of the Christian Free Church of the Salvation Army, looked after Gwen, her sister and her two brothers. All children were encouraged in their artistic talents, but the mother died very early when Gwen was only eight years old. The family then moved within Wales, in the coastal town of Tenby, where Gwen often sketched seagulls and sea animals, but Gwen's oldest surviving work dates from 1895 when she was 19 years old.
Gwen attended the only art school in the United Kingdom where women were admitted, the school was based on French methods. Under the influential cartoonist and art professor Henry Tonks she learned to draw figures, lived with her brother Augustus and is said to have lived on nuts and fruit alone for reasons of cost. Through her brother she met other, later influential artists, including his wife Ida Nettleship and the portrait artist Arthur Ambrose McEvoy. Her brother's drawing skills and his attitude put the reserved sister in the shade, even though he admired her work. Gwen traveled to Paris, where she studied at James McNeill Whistler's Academy, and after her return she exhibited her works for the first time at the New English Art Club. Financial success failed to materialize, so that the young Gwen even had to live as a squatter in run-down buildings. She returned to France and worked as a model. This is how she met her lover, the much older sculptor Auguste Rodin, one of the most famous artists of the time. Not only him, but also Matisse, Picasso and Rainer Maria Rilke stayed in the French capital at this time. John moved to a suburb of Paris and, despite many important acquaintances, worked, preferably in seclusion. After the end of their affair she increasingly devoted herself to the Catholic faith. She no longer needed to work as a model, and found her most important patron in the art collector John Quinn. Because of her perfectionism she largely refrained from exhibitions, but one of her works found its way to the Armory Show in New York. Among her later works are mainly portraits of unknown women, sitting with their hands on their laps. She had her only solo exhibition in London, before that she had been able to show works in the famous Paris Autumn Salon. She died in 1939, according to some statements she had starved herself to death.
While she stood in her brother's shadow during his lifetime, today's critics define her as the more talented of the two. Many of her works can be found at the National Museum Cardiff and Tate Britain
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.jpg "A Corner of the Artist")
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.jpg "The Brown Tea Pot by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Portrait of a Lady by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Convalescent by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Madonna and Child by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Girl Holding a Rose by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Old Woman in a Tramway by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Study of a Girl by Gwen John")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-178621).jpg "Self Portrait, Naked, Sitting on a Bed by Gwen John")
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_(charcoal_grey_wash_bodycolour_on_grey_paper)_-_(MeisterDrucke-385003).jpg "Seated Girl (Marie Hamonet?) by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Girl in Rose by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-322151).jpg "Young girl: Marie Hamonet by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Petit Profile, c.1920 by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1493839).jpg "Girl Lying on a Bed by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-415674).jpg "Young Woman Wearing a Large Hat by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Girl in a Mulberry Dress by Gwen John")
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 c1915-20 - (MeisterDrucke-303411).jpg "Mother Marie Poussepin (c.1915-20) by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Chloë Boughton-Leigh, c.1907 by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-997219).jpg "Little girl wearing large hat by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Precious Book by Gwen John")
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.jpg "A sitting Girl wearing a Spotted Blue Dress by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-316734).jpg "Vase of Flowers, c.1927 by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1484029).jpg "Girl in a Blue Dress by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Seated Woman by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Self Portrait by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1537135).jpg "Sleeping Nun, c. 1916-18 by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Street at Night, Meudon by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1484512).jpg "Head of Rodin by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Woman Sewing at a Window by Gwen John")
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.jpg "A Young Woman in Blue by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Mere Poussepin, 1920 by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Room Overlooking the Courtyard by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Young Nun by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Portrait of the Artist")
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.jpg "Study of a Cat by Gwen John")
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_(see_also_13031_-_(MeisterDrucke-592111).jpg "Children in a Church by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Interior by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Self-Portrait by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Young Woman in a Red Shawl by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Precious Book by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Head of a Woman by Gwen John")
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.jpg "La Concierge by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Girl with Large Hat and Straw-Coloured Hair by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Flowers in a Jug by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Artist in her Room in Paris by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-432279).jpg "Ophelia: Portrait Imagine, c.1910 by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Old Woman in a Black Shawl by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Girl in a blue dress holding a piece of sewing by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Young Woman with a Violin by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1501733).jpg "Winifred John in a Large Hat by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Nun by Gwen John")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-305360).jpg "Portrait study of August Rodin by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Japanese Doll by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1483796).jpg "Young girl in brown hat and coat by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Study of a Cat by Gwen John")
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.jpg "Little Girl with a Large Hat by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1497496).jpg "A Vase of Flowers by Gwen John")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1507355).jpg "Mademoiselle Pouvereau by Gwen John")
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.jpg "The Nun (study) by Gwen John")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-89067).jpg "Girls in a Church by Gwen John")
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