This atmospheric study in watercolour and gouache, which may be dated to c.1925, is likely to be a view of Meudon, the village just southwest of Paris that Gwen John moved to in 1911, and where she lived and worked for the rest of her life. As has been noted, ‘Gwen John’s paintings of Meudon at night sometimes recall Whistler’s nocturnes in atmosphere, and Walter Sickert’s small-scale, close-toned Dieppe scenes. In their almost abstract nature and painterly freeness they are unprecedented in her oeuvre.’ A closely related nocturne of the same house, of similar dimensions, appeared at auction in London in 1999. Among other stylistically and thematically comparable works is a Street at Night, Meudon, in the collection of the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and a watercolour inscribed ‘La Rue Terre Neuve. Quelqu’un qui guet’ and dated 8 April 1929, which was sold at auction in 2015.
This drawing was among the contents of Gwen John’s studio in Meudon at the time of her death. Inherited by her nephew Edwin John (1905-1978), it was included in the retrospective memorial exhibition of 217 of the artist’s works held at the Matthiesen Gallery in London in 1946.
Provenance: The estate of the artist
By descent to the artist’s nephew, Edwin John (Inv. EJ 307)
Anonymous sale, London, Lyon & Turnbull, 23 October 2020, lot 17
Private collection, London.
Exhibition: Possibly London, National Gallery, British Painting since Whistler, 1940, no.211 (‘Nocturne. Gouache. Size 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 ins. Lent by Edwin John, Esq.’); Possibly London, C.E.M.A. (Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts), British Institute of Adult Education, British Paintings 1900-1940, 1941, no.126; London, Matthiesen Ltd., Gwen John Memorial Exhibition, 1946, probably no.206 (‘Meudon Nocturne: House with a Gate. Water Colour and Gouache. 9 1/4 x 11 1/2 in. Exhibited at the National Gallery, 1940, No.346; Exhibited at the British Institute of Adult Education, 1941, No.126.’); Chichester, Pallant House Gallery, Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, 2023, unnumbered.
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