Vase of flowers

Gwen John spent most of her life in a couple of quiet rooms at Meudon, on the edge of Paris, painting the same few subjects over and over: a corner of the room, a cat, a woman sitting still, and sometimes just this, some flowers in a vase. Her brother Augustus was the famous one in their lifetime, loud and celebrated, and she once said she thought she would be remembered long after him. Around this time her handling was changing. She was giving up smooth layered glazes for small dry touches of paint set side by side, almost like tiles, so the pink and white petals sit in a soft, even grey light. A few loose petals have already dropped onto the wooden table below.