'Rarely seen' portrait by 'visionary' artist Gwen John to go on display in Edinburgh gallery

Young Woman with a Coral Necklace, which will be exhibited for the first time since 1964 at Modern Two, is owned by Scottish artist and Gwen John scholar, Mary Edmond Taubman, who became fascinated with Gwen John’s work as a student while studying at Edinburgh College of Art in the early 1950s.

It was bought by Ms Taubman from the artist’s estate, in 1968, and has been loaned to National Galleries Scotland by her family, in her memory.

The painting will go on display alongside more than 200 oil paintings, watercolours, and rarely seen sketches and archive materials as part of the exhibition Gwen John: Strange Beauties.

John was regarded as a trailblazer for female artists. Born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire in 1876, she studied at the Slade School of Art in London, becoming one of the first generation of women to receive a formal art education, before moving to Paris in 1904 where she led a fiercely independent and creative life.

She later converted to Catholicism, marrying her faith and her artwork. John described herself as “a seer of strange beauties”, casting herself as a visionary with the ability to see beyond surface appearances.

Anne Lyden, director general at the National Galleries of Scotland, said: “Independent, intellectually curious and visionary, Gwen John was an extraordinary painter. Her acutely observed and meditative paintings and vivid and evocative watercolours invite us to pause, look closely and discover the uncanny beauty of the world around us.

“We hope visitors to Modern Two this summer will enjoy discovering Gwen John’s world. The exhibition is an international collaboration between four museums and galleries and we are so grateful to the lenders, sponsors and exhibition partners whose generosity has made this celebration of Gwen John in Scotland possible.”

The exhibition will also delve into John’s artistic practice, revealing new research about her painting materials and methods. She is known to have developed a secret coding system for the colour mixtures and tones she used in her paintings – a code which still hasn’t been cracked to this day.

The exhibition, which will cover two floors of the Edinburgh gallery, will be the second stop of a global tour, following a critically acclaimed run at National Museum Cardiff earlier this year.

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Alongside significant loans will be key works by John from Scotland’s national art collection. This includes A Young Nun, which is part of a series focusing on the convent of the Dominican Sisters of Charity at Meudon, near Paris., as well as Portrait of a Girl in Grey, depicting a woman praying.

The National Galleries of Scotland said the exhibition will offer a “fresh new perspective on her exquisite work and lasting legacy”.

The exhibition was developed by Amgueddfa Cymru in partnership with the National Galleries of Scotland, Yale Center for British Art and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC.