Gwen John comes into her own at this excellent show at Pallant House, finds Gertrude Clark.
Gwen John is invariably – and inevitably – described as the sister of Augustus John, but the curator of Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, Alicia Foster (who wrote about her in last month’s issue), is keen to present Gwen as something other than the wan recluse of her reputation. She seizes on Augustus’s recollection that “I am rarely exuberant, but she was always so”. But what’s striking in this excellent show is the quality of reflective interiority that comes across in her paintings. Actually it’s not just spiritual interiority you encounter – John, as was the fashion of the time, did focus on actual interiors. The lovely A Corner of the Artist’s House in Paris shows an umbrella propped up against a chair, a bowl of flowers on a table in a light-filled room, and it says everything about the artist.
