Portraits of Women

Gwen John has long been regarded as one of the foremost female painters of the twentieth century. She was just one of a group of outstandingly talented women at the Slade School of Art, a group which also included Edna Clarke Hall, Ida Nettleship and Gwen Smith. This new biography tells the story of these four women's lives, from their shared student days at the Slade through the subsequent development of their careers. It has often been assumed that marriage and immersion in domestic responsibilities terminated the promising careers of these women. But Thomas shows that, despite these complications, they continued in serious artistic endeavour throughout their lives, producing work of a highly original and individual character. In striving to reconcile the demands of family and domestic ties with their desire to continue painting, the Slade women struggled with a dilemma which continues to face many women in the late twentieth century.