Exhibition in Focus: Gwen John: Strange Beauties at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales

Gwen John, Mere Poussepin Seated at a Table, 1913–1920. Oil on canvas, 88.3 x 65.4 cm. Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (NMW A 149).

Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales has announced the first major retrospective in over forty years dedicated to one of Wales’ most accomplished artists, Gwen John. Gwen John: Strange Beauties places the artist centre stage in the year that will mark 150 years since her birth.

Born in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire in 1876, Gwen John 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 where she settled. The exhibition will showcase work from her early years in Wales through to her late works inspired by her religious beliefs, French modernism, and her surroundings in the Parisian suburb of Meudon.

Rarely seen drawings and watercolours will be on display, many for the first time, giving an insight into her quiet yet determined artistic vision.

Portraits of named sitters intermingle with more poetic character studies and genre scenes. Portrayals of John’s friend Dorelia on their first trip to France and the austere Mrs Atkinson in her homely domestic setting juxtapose with dreamy interior scenes capturing women alone in moments of calm thought and a fleeting encounter with the cheerful countenance of a nun.

The two versions of her Self-Portrait, Nude, Sketching, from about 1908-9, show the artist’s unflinching and unabashed gaze as she captures her own nakedness, standing in front of the mirror with her sketchbook. The artist is in turn depicted by her artist collaborators, her inner complexities expressed by the tumultuous textures and fraught form of Rodin’s sculpted portrait.

The exhibition has been organised by Amgueddfa Cymru in partnership with National Galleries of Scotland, the Yale Center for British Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. After the exhibition closes at National Museum Cardiff on 28 June 2026, it will travel to partner venues on the following dates:

National Galleries Scotland: Modern Two, Edinburgh – 1 August 2026 – 4 January 2027
Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut – 18 February – 20 June 2027
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC – 30 July – 28 November 2027