Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Copyright Undetermined
Accession Number:
B1993.30.13
Gallery Label:
Quiet, subdued, and intense, this view of a young woman in an undefined interior typifies Gwen John’s artistic vision in the years around 1920. Since 1915 she had been simplifying her paintings, paring down the details of the setting and monumentalizing her sitters. Little is known about the model for the present work, although she appears in the majority of John’s paintings from this period. She lived near the artist in Meudon, a suburb southwest of Paris. Since her actual name is no longer known, she is generally called the Convalescent model, having in the late 1910s modeled for John’s series of pictures all of which carry that title. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2010
