"God's Little Artist"

Gwen John was a Welsh artist who lived in France during most of her career.

Gwen was received into the Catholic Church in 1913. Her notebooks from this time are filled with meditations and prayers. She wrote of her desire to be "God's little artist" and "to become a saint".

Mrs. John mostly painted anonymous sitting females. However, we have a description from her model, Jeanne Foster, who wrote: "She takes down my hair and does it like her own...she has me sit as she does and I feel absorbed in her personality as I sit."

Here is her 1918-1919 canvas titled The Convalescent.



In 1912, Gwen wrote in a letter, "As to whether I have anything worth expressing that is apart from the question. I may never have anything to express, except this desire for a more interior life."