Gwen John

Annabella

c.1915–20

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In Tate Britain

Spotlights: Gwen John

Free entry

Artist: Gwen John 1876–1939
Medium: Charcoal and watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 238 × 210 mm
frame: 475 × 397 × 22 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Miss Mary Constance Lloyd 1957
Reference: T00155

Display caption

The model is Marie Hamonet, a young girl who lived at Pléneuf, a village on Brittany's north coast which Gwen John visited in 1918 and 1919. She went to Brittany on her brother Augustus's urging, to recuperate from the strains she was feeling after Rodin's death. John made many drawings of Marie. She sometimes called her 'Annabella' or 'Little Annabella'. Marie later became Mme Ferrec, and lived in Paris. John drew several of the local village children, although she remarked to the American collector John Quinn that, as most of the children were working in factories, models were difficult to find.

Gallery label, September 2004

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Catalogue entry

T00155 ANNABELLA

Inscr. ‘Annabella’ on the back.
Black chalk and wash on tinted paper, 9 3/8×8 1/4 (24×22·5).
Presented by Miss Mary Constance Lloyd 1957.
Coll: Given to Miss Lloyd by the artist.

A drawing of ‘Little Annabelle’ was in the John Quinn Collection (Catalogue, 1926, p.18). It is difficult to date any of Gwen John's drawings of children. See N05152.

Miss Lloyd, the donor of T00155–T00156, was a friend of Gwen John's at the Slade and in the early years in Paris.

Published in:
Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture, London 1964, I