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Gwen John: two albums of watercolours

This article publishes the identification of two unknown albums of watercolours by Gwen John at Princeton in the papers of Arthur Symons. At the time of their discovery,the identity of the artist and the means by which Symons acquired them was unknown. Drawing on unpublished correspondence in the National Library of Wales, the article proves that John gave the albums Arthur Symons in 1920. John did not date her watercolours , therefore, the date of this gifting, means that for the first time , we have a secure date for a group of watercolours that are an important aspect of John’s oeuvre. This dating also provides firmer dates for watercolours in other collections, including those in the National Museum of Wales. The findings offer a template for a new, fuller catalogue raisonné of the watercolours. John’s selection of works for Symons compares to those she gave to at least two other people she admired . The article reveals that she chose an example of a variant of the same picture for each person suggesting that she placed a premium on working in series, and that we should see this practice as a reflection of a serious commitment to modernist painting rather than a symptom of a deep-seated neurosis as it is often described. The article shows that John’s working methods have a close connection with Whistler’s practice of making different versions of a picture. This major new discovery which had press coverage in Britain and America , could have been published in a mainstream art historical journal, however, the Princeton curators offered the author invaluable assistance, and therefore, it was decided to favour the peer-reviewed Princeton journal. An exhibition of the watercolours at Princeton in November-December 2011 marked the publication of the article.