Art | Pictures of the Month | February 2008
Picture of the Month
February 2008
Mère Poussepin
by Gwen John
Gwen John (1876–1939) was born in Pembrokeshire, and trained at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She was a reclusive artist and often spent a long time over her work. Her reputation has long been overshadowed by her that of her more fashionable brother Augustus (1878–1961).
In 1904, John moved to Paris, settling in the suburb of Meudon in 1911 where she began instruction in Roman Catholicism at the local convent. From 1913, John’s faith and her art became intricately intertwined, her work becoming increasingly meditative and devotional in mood.
This portrait is one of several versions John made on the subject between 1915 and 1925 for the Meudon nuns, who had commissioned a painted copy of an existing picture of Mère Marie Poussepin (1653–1744), founder of their order, the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin of Tours in 1654. This later developed into a request for six copies, but only one version was ever installed. John found these paintings particularly challenging, it taking her seven years to complete the first. As well as making studies of two living nuns, John used a 1911 prayer card, showing a reproduction of an eighteenth-century oil of the foundress, as her main visual aid. This version (others are in the collections at Tate Britain, The National Museum, Cardiff, and Southampton City Art Gallery) shows one of the more simplified interpretations of the composition, where Mère Poussepin wears the habit of her order and sits with hands folded in her lap.
John applies very dry paint, giving a thick granular surface while the muted tones of pink, grey, oatmeal and cream infuse the portrait with a subtle sensitivity, recalling her tuition under Whistler. Such aesthetics suggest the spiritual purity of the sitter, while the latter’s quiet self-assurance prompts us to contemplate the ‘real’ woman behind the nun.
Kathryn Murray, Gallery Assistant
A 15-minute gallery talk focusing on this picture and exhibition will be held in the galleries on Thursday 7 February at 1.30pm.
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