Oil on canvas
Glynn Vivian Art Gallery Collection
Woman with a Coral Necklace,
late 1910’s – early 1920’s
Woman with a Coral Necklace could also be titled Woman with a Pearl Earring, after Vermeer: the earring’s high tone echoing the catch-light in the eyes. The expression in the eyes demonstrating the meditative quality of recueilli that Gwen John so desired: ‘I may never have anything to express, except this desire for a more interior life’. Painted at her studio in Meudon, the flat tonal range and use of bare canvas show her admiration for Cézanne and her journey towards modernism: from Tenby to London, then Paris, John’s ambition was affirmed by her selection for the Armory Show, New York, 1913.
Professor Sharon Morris, Slade School of Fine Art, UCL.
See Gwen John’s other works in the Glynn Vivian’s permanent collection, The Nun and Little Girl Wearing a Straw Hat.
