Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gwen-john-1363" aria-label="More by Gwen John" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Gwen John</a>
Young Woman Holding a Black Cat
Purchased 1946
actions: postures and motions
adults
animals: mammals
cat
people
sitting
woman
<p>Gwen John made numerous versions of this painting, some nearly identical and others with differing poses or costumes. The sitter was a neighbour of John's in Meudon, near Paris. Although she was the artist's most frequently used model, she is rarely mentioned in John's correspondence, and her name is unknown. She is sometimes referred to as 'the Convalescent' after the series of paintings of that name for which she posed, one of which hangs nearby.</p><p><em>Gallery label, September 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
21 June 2003 – 28 August 2007
2007-08-28
21 June 2003 – 28 August 2007
2007-08-28
2003-06-21
Tate Liverpool (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
2003-06-21
International Modern Art
Collection based display
29 September 2004 – 15 May 2005
2005-05-15
29 September 2004 – 9 January 2005
2005-01-09
2004-09-29
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
12 February 2005 – 15 May 2005
2005-05-15
2005-02-12
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (Cardiff, UK)
2004-09-29
Gwen John and Augustus John
Exhibition
9 March 2020 – 3 January 2021
2021-01-03
9 March 2020 – 3 January 2021
2021-01-03
2020-03-09
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2020-03-09
Gwen John
Collection based display
13 May 2023 – 30 April 2024
2024-04-30
13 May 2023 – 8 October 2023
2023-10-08
2023-05-13
Pallant House Gallery (Chichester, UK)
27 October 2023 – 30 April 2024
2024-04-30
2023-10-27
Holburne Museum of Art (Bath, UK)
http://www.bath.ac.uk/Holburne/
2023-05-13
Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris
Loan-out
7 February 2026 – 28 November 2027
2027-11-28
7 February 2026 – 28 June 2026
2026-06-28
2026-02-07
Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales (Cardiff, UK)
1 August 2026 – 4 January 2027
2027-01-04
2026-08-01
National Galleries of Scotland (Edinburgh, UK)
18 February 2027 – 20 June 2027
2027-06-20
2027-02-18
Yale Center for British Art (New Haven, USA)
http://ycba.yale.edu/index.asp
30 July 2027 – 28 November 2027
2027-11-28
2027-07-30
National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington D.C, USA)
2026-02-07
Gwen John
Loan-out
Young Woman Holding a Black Cat
support: 460 × 298 × 17 mm
frame: 695 × 550 × 102 mm
Purchased 1946
<p>Gwen John made numerous versions of this <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a>,  some nearly identical and others with differing  poses or costumes. The sitter was a neighbour of  John's in Meudon, near Paris. Although she was the  artist's most frequently used model, she is rarely  mentioned in John's correspondence, and her name  is unknown. She is sometimes referred to as 'the  Convalescent' after the series of paintings of  that name for which she posed, one of which hangs  nearby.</p>
Display caption
2004-09-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N05744</b> YOUNG WOMAN HOLDING A BLACK CAT <i>c.</i>
1914–15
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 18×11 3/4 (46×29·5).
<br/>Purchased from the Matthiesen Gallery (Knapping Fund) 1946.
<br/><i>Coll:</i> As for <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/john-study-of-a-child-n05152" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05152</span></a>.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> Matthiesen Gallery, September–October 1946 (30), as ‘Three-quarter length of a Young Woman holding a black cat’; Arts Council, <i>Ethel Walker, Frances Hodgkins, Gwen John</i>, Tate Gallery, May–June 1952 (122, repr. pl.7).</p>
<p>Several variants of this subject exist and the same model can be recognized in other pictures, though it is not known who she was. Nos.1, 2, 5 and 6 at the Matthiesen Gallery, February– March 1958, show her wearing the same dress with the same window recess in the background. They were painted at Gwen John's flat, 29 Rue Terre Neuve, Meudon. When Edwin John went over to France soon after her death in 1939 he found all her work stored in this attic room.</p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/>Mary Chamot, Dennis Farr and Martin Butlin, <i>The Modern British Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture</i>, London 1964, I
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-07-22T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults animals: mammals cat people sitting woman