Mother Marie Poussepin 1920

Gwen John’s ‘Mother Marie Poussepin’ is a symphony of browns, blacks, and whites, most likely painted sometime in the 1910s. Just imagine the slow, deliberate process John undertook, building up those subtle layers! I’m feeling for John, the work involved, and the patience required. What was she thinking as she mixed those ochres and creams? The thick impasto of the white habit against the sombre browns of the background makes me wonder about the weight of the costume – and what that might represent. And what did it feel like to paint the hands, so still and posed? There’s a quietness here that reminds me of other women painters like Agnes Martin, an attention to the small and the subtle within a limited palette, and a dedication to a particular feeling. Painters are always talking to each other across time, and in this painting I feel that I, too, can add to the conversation. Each brushstroke is an echo, a shared attempt to grasp something essential about being human.