Two Women in a Church

Maker Gwen John (British, 1876 - 1939)

Collections

Women Artists

ClassificationsDRAWINGS

Dateca. 1920

Mediummatte water-based transparent paint on wove paper

Dimensions8 13/16 × 6 7/8 in. (22.4 × 17.5 cm.)

InscribedInscribed on verso in graphite: EJ 1199

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Status

Not on view

Label TextGwen John belonged to a generation of women who trained and worked as professional artists around the turn of the twentieth century. In the Paris suburb of Meudon, where she moved in 1911, she converted to Catholicism and started attending church. During services, the artist would sketch the congregants. Here, she portrays two women wearing differently shaped hats, composing the image with bold black outlines and broad washes of muted tone. In her drawings, John focuses more on the shapes she noticed in clothing, on the various postures, and the chairs they sat on, than on the individuals (2022).

Object number2000.4