The private lives of Gwen John

Laura Cumming | The Observer | 7th February 2026

A former lover of Rodin, John’s biography is well known. A large retrospective casts her in a different light. Her many interior studies, showing silent women in small, silent rooms, hint at her real interest – inner experience. Her subjects are often dressed in blue, are seated and appear lost in thought. Are these portraits or, rather, studies of the state of introspection? John described herself as “a seer of strange beauties, a teller of harmonies.” One writer says, “a great modern artist”.