Gwen John: A Painter's Life - Hardcover

Roe, Sue

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374113173 ISBN 13: 9780374113179

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2001

Synopsis

Drawn from her vivid and passionate unpublished letters, a stunning biography, filled with gorgeous illustrations, details the life of the complex and rebellious artist who painted and modeled amidst the Bohemian circles of early twentieth-century Paris, where she become involved with Rodin, the legendary French sculptor.

About this title

Review:

Born in 1876, Gwen John is one of the "modern Victorians", a woman Whose life continues to challenge her biographers. "The real mystery of Gwen John's life," as Sue Roe points out at the beginning of Gwen John, "may turn out to have less to do with her own elusiveness than with the problem of why we find it so difficult to imagine the life-style and frame of mind of a woman artist living alone." Drawing on a wide range of unpublished letters, diaries and notebooks, Roe attempts to describe both: the lifestyle--bohemian, roaming, daring--and the frame of mind--at once rebellious and fragile--of one of the most important artists of the 20th century. As if in imitation of that life, Gwen John proceeds at (sometimes breathless) speed. Roe is close to her subject, and she helps her readers to get closer. Through numerous well-chosen quotations, John's voice is heard throughout the book. Speaking of her celebrated relationship with Rodin, for example (in which eroticism gives rise to a desire for conformity: "She just wanted to be his wife"), or of her powerful identification between life and work ("Your life can still be a work of art"). Over and over again, John painted women in rooms: a theme which is reflected through Roe's tracking of John from Paris to London to Meudon--a series of lodgings and rooms in which John carves out a space in which she can live and paint. It's a fascinating, if sometimes disjointed, story in which Gwen John remains a figure with interiors--mapped onto the remarkable body of work that Roe opens up for a new audience. --Vicky Lebeau

Book Description:

Out of the shadows and into the limelight - revealing, lively new biography of the sensual, quietly rebellious woman (sister of Augustus John and lover of Rodin) who as an unmistakeably great artist in her own right.

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0374113173
• ISBN 13: 9780374113179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 364