Ethel Léontine Gabain (1883-1950)

Ethel Léontine Gabain, later Ethel Copley, was a French-Scottish artist.

Gabain was a renowned painter and lithographer and among the founding members of the Senefelder Club.

While she was known for her oil portraits of actresses, Gabain was one of the few artists of her time able to live on the sale of her lithographs.

She also did etchings, dry-points, as well as some posters.

Early life

Gabain had four sisters and one brother.

Her father was French and her mother, Bessie, was born in Scotland.

Her father, Charles Edward Gabain was a well off French coffee importer and on his retirement he moved the family to England to The Manor House, Bushey, Hertfordshire. Gabain was born in France and lived there for over twenty years.

When she moved to England she was well equipped.

She knew the country and was able to speak fluent English due to the fact, from the age of fourteen, she had boarded at Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire.

The school encouraged her art skills and commissioned her to paint a portrait of Miss Ann Watt Whitelaw, who was the headmistress there from 1911-1925.

In 1902, Gabain studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London before returning to France in 1903 to study at Raphael Collin's Studio in Paris.

From 1904-1906 she studied at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.

There, the artist, F. E. Jackson, taught Gabain the art of lithography.

The Central, which was established in 1896 by the London County Council, offered instruction in the trades which were thought to be more artistic - lithography being one of them.

Gabain was determined to produce her own lithographic prints and also enrolled at the Chelsea Polytechnic for a time.

Here she learnt how to use a printing press. Gabain experimented with colour lithography and decided it was not how she wanted to work so she sought to produce brilliant rich black and white lithographs.

World War II

In April 1940, Gabain was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee, WAAC, to produce four lithographs of Women's Voluntary Services members and four on the subject of children being evacuated from London and other cities. Gabain actually offered WAAC thirteen lithographs for this commission but they only accepted the original eight commissioned.

WAAC published these as two sets of lithographs, Children in Wartime with five images and Women's Work in the War other than the Services, which had six images.

In total WAAC acquired 38 works by Gabain during the War.

For these commissions Gabain, although often in poor health, travelled all over Britain.

She went to the Scottish Highlands to record the work of women lumberjacks, known as "lumberjills", at a Women's Land Army camp in Banffshire and to Devon to depict children evacuated there from London.

Throughout the War, Gabain recorded women working in what, in peacetime, had been traditionally male crafts and trades.

As well as women salvage workers, factory workers, ARP wardens and air raid workers, Gabain produced a portrait of Captain Pauline Gower of the Air Transport Auxiliary.

In 1945, she produced a series of portraits that included Barbara Ward and Caroline Haslett.

Gabain's WAAC commissions allowed her to explore her interest in the innovative medical techniques which were being developed during the war.

In 1944, as well as depicting Sir Alexander Fleming working in the laboratory where he had discovered penicillin, Gabain also recorded, in A Child Bomb-Victim Receiving Penicillin Treatment, a young girl being treated with the drug.

She recorded pioneering treatments of burns victims, including the introduction of a new continuous irrigation method.

Several industrial firms commissioned works from Gabain. Williams and Williams, Reliance Works in Chester commissioned Gabain to produce a number of lithographs and oils.

One oil shows Women Workers in the Canteen at Williams and Williams.

These were brought about by Lawrence Haward, the curator of The City Art Gallery, now the Manchester Art Gallery.

Gabain received two commissions from Ferranti Hollinwood – Working on the Cathode Ray Tubes and A Giro Compass; one from Richard Haworth and Co. Ltd. in Salford - The Weaver; and one from the British Cotton Industry Research Association - The Shirley Institute of Cotton Research. | Source: © Wikipedia

Ethel Léontine Gabain (1883-1950) nacque a Le Harve, in Francia, e fu una rinomata pittrice e litografa.

Studiò a Londra alla Slade School of Fine Art e alla Central School of Arts and Crafts.

In quest'ultima Gabain si dedicò alla litografia, producendo stampe prevalentemente in bianco e nero.

Volendo promuovere e condividere l'arte della litografia, Gabain, insieme al marito John Copley, fu membro fondatore del Senefelder Club, un'organizzazione dedicata al processo litografico.

Durante la seconda guerra mondiale Gabain ricevette l'incarico dal War Artists' Advisory Committee di produrre litografie di vari soggetti in tutto il Regno Unito, tra cui il lavoro dei membri del Women's Voluntary Services.

Gabain era anche una pittrice e spesso creava ritratti teatrali di attrici in costume, così come scene di guerra con il focus sul lavoro delle donne.

Fu membro della Royal Society of British Artists, del Royal Institute of Oil Painters e fu eletta presidente della Society of Women Artists nel 1940. | Fonte: © National Galleries of Scotland