Letters To Gwen John – Celia Paul

And she had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving and she went to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’ But the Lord answered her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things; one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her.’

There is a painting I love by Velázquez of this scene. In the foreground a pudgy Martha is at the kitchen table preparing the supper. She is looking directly out of the canvas at the viewer. She is smouldering with resentment; Velázquez painted her as a sensual woman, her lips pouting sulkily. Behind her head, through the kitchen door, we can see Christ speaking animatedly to Mary, who kneels at his feet, her head looking up at her Master with a rapt, adoring expression.

I have always desired to be Mary, not Martha. I want to have ‘the good portion’. I want to keep in mind that only ‘one thing is needful’: my art. I haven’t wanted to be the one who serves, I haven’t wanted to be ‘distracted with much serving’. But by being a mother, I have had to. I like to think that my painting has become more compassionate because of it. I comfort myself with the examples of Rembrandt, Vermeer and Constable, who all had family to support and struggled through the pressures, both financial and emotional.

Women are supposed to be better at ‘multitasking’ than men, but I can only focus on one thing. I have tried teaching at art schools. I have given my students my whole attention. Afterwards I have been so completely drained of all energy that I’ve been unable to concentrate on my own work for several days. For a lot of dedicated artists, the opposite is true and they are energised by their teaching.

Gwen identified with Mary, not Martha. But during the First World War she becomes a very different, less reclusive person.

CELIA PAUL is recognized as one of the most important painters working in Britain today. Her major solo exhibitions include Celia Paul, curated by Hilton Als, at the Yale Center for British Art (2018) and the Huntington Art Museum, San Marino, California (2019); Desdemona for Celia by Hilton at Gallery Met, New York (2015–2016); and Gwen John and Celia Paul, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK (2012–2013). Her work was included in the group exhibition All Too Human at Tate Britain (2018).

Her first book, Self-Portrait, was published by New York Review Books in 2019. OceanofPDF.com Letters to Gwen John OceanofPDF.com BY THE SAME AUTHOR Self-Portrait OceanofPDF.com LETTERS TO GWEN JOHN CELIA PAUL NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS New York OceanofPDF.com THIS IS A NEW YORK REVIEW BOOK PUBLISHED BY THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS 435 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 www.nyrb.com Copyright © 2022 by Celia Paul All rights reserved.

Cover design © Rosie Palmer Cover images: (top) detail from Rising Cloud and Bird, 2020 by Celia Paul and (bottom) detail from Breaking, Santa Monica, 2019 by Celia Paul © Celia Paul; courtesy the artist and Victoria Miro gallery Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Paul, Celia, 1959– author. Title: Letters to Gwen John / Celia Paul.

Description: New York City : New York Review Books, [2022] Identifiers: LCCN 2021026389 (print) | LCCN 2021026390 (ebook) | ISBN 9781681376400 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781681376417 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Paul, Celia, 1959—Correspondence. | John, Gwen, 1876–1939–Correspondence. | Imaginary letters. Classification: LCC ND497.P363 A3 2022 (print) | LCC ND497.P363 (ebook) | DDC 759.2–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021026389 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021026390 ISBN: 9781681376417 v 1.0 For a complete list of titles, visit www.nyrb.com OceanofPDF.com Contents Cover Biographical Note Title Page Copyright and More Information By the Same Author LETTERS TO GWEN JOHN Notes List of Illustrations Acknowledgments OceanofPDF.com For Frank OceanofPDF.com Celia Paul, Self-Portrait, Early Spring, 2020 Gwen John, Self-Portrait with a Letter, 1907 Gwen John, The Convalescent, c.

1923–4 OceanofPDF.com On the shelf in my studio in Bloomsbury are four postcards of paintings that I love: The Blue Rigi, Sunrise by J.M.W. Turner; Stonehenge, a watercolour by John Constable; Self-Portrait by Rembrandt, dated 1658; and The Convalescent by Gwen John. Just one look at this reproduction of Gwen John’s painting and my breathing becomes easier. The whole composition is a symphony in grey. She must have mixed the colours on her palette first—Payne’s Grey, Prussian Blue, Naples Yellow, Yellow Ochre, Brown Ochre, Rose Madder, Flake White—then all the other colours would be dipped in this combination so that every form is united in grey: the dark blue of the girl’s dress, the thrush-egg blue of the cushion behind her back and the tablecloth, the rose pink of the cup and saucer echoing the delicate pink of her fingernails and lips, the teapot like a shiny chestnut.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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