Oil paint on canvas
Tate Britain
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
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>
Chloë BoughtonLeigh
Purchased 1925
actions: postures and motions
adults
Boughton-Leigh, Chloë
domestic
fine arts and music
individuals: female
interior - non-specific
interiors
named individuals
objects
people
picture
portraits
sitting
woman
<p>Gwen John trained at the Slade School of Art in London. She settled in Paris in 1904, working as a model and immersing herself in the artistic world of the city. She lived in France for the rest of her life, exhibiting on both sides of the Channel. The portrait shown here is of Chloë Boughton-Leigh, a close friend of the artist. It was likely painted in John’s attic room and studio in Paris. The subtle colour scheme, short foreground and her sitter’s informal pose suggest an intimate atmosphere.</p><p><em>Gallery label, January 2019</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
8 August 2001 – 21 April 2003
2003-04-21
8 August 2001 – 21 April 2003
2003-04-21
2001-08-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2001-08-08
French Influence on British Art
Collection based display
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
5 May 2006 – 15 April 2012
2012-04-15
5 May 2006 – 15 April 2012
2012-04-15
2006-05-05
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2006-05-05
After Impressionism
Collection based display
16 December 2006 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
16 December 2006 – 18 November 2007
2007-11-18
2006-12-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2006-12-16
Intimate Interiors
Collection based display
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
16 May 2024 – 13 October 2024
2024-10-13
16 May 2024 – 13 October 2024
2024-10-13
2024-05-16
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2024-05-16
Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920
Exhibition
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
Chloë Boughton-Leigh
support: 584 × 381 mm
frame: 705 × 495 × 75 mm
Purchased 1925
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Chloë Boughton-Leigh</i> is a small portrait by British artist Gwen John depicting a seated woman facing forward. Her head is tilted downwards and to her left, and she stares out of the canvas beyond the viewer. Her arms hang loosely and her hands rest in her lap, her left hand lightly holding a piece of paper. The woman wears a grey checked dress with a scooped neckline, high waist and wide sleeves, which expose her elegant wrists and accentuate her hands. Around her neck she wears a gold locket decorated with pearl pendants that match her earrings. Her dark hair falls loosely around her shoulders and is tied with a black ribbon. The space around her is bare apart from a painting in a black frame hanging on the wall. The colour scheme is subtle and muted, with sandy browns, light greys and blacks dominating. The woman’s grey dress stands out against the subdued wall and is echoed by the painting’s grey mount.</p>
<p>This portrait was likely painted in John’s attic room and studio at 85 rue du Cherche-Midi, Paris, to which she moved in spring 1907. The image was executed by softly and methodically applying oil paint to the canvas. Some scumbling appears, along with broken applications of paint around the sitter’s head. John has used opaque colours but applied them fluidly in other areas (for instance in the dress and face), giving them a translucency. This traditional method of paint application was taught at the Slade School of Art where John was a student in 1894–7. John’s biographer, Sue Roe, notes that the artist added ‘a strip of wood … along the foot of the picture, enabling her to paint the whole of the hands, which in the original version were cropped for no apparent reason’ (Roe 2002, p.88).</p>
<p>The sitter is Ellen Theodosia Boughton-Leigh (known to family and friends as Chloë), daughter of Edward Ward-Boughton-Leigh of Brownsover Hall, Warwickshire. Chloë became part of John’s intimate circle along with her sister Maude, who had also studied at the Slade. In this painting Chloë sits lost in thought, paying little attention to the viewer. Her quiet repose, the muted palette and shallow picture plane encourage a sense of intimacy. As Roe has noted: ‘the portrait has a quality of intimate informality; it is a subjective interpretation of her sitter, suggesting unpretentiousness and gentleness and hinting at reciprocal warmth’ (Roe 2002, p.87). Roe also observed intimacy in the textures captured by John: ‘somehow through her candid attention to surfaces – the crinkled dress, the hair, the texture of the skin – Gwen has succeeded in conveying the exact tenor of the sitter’s inner life, and Chloë is attentive, alert, preoccupied, ever so slightly <i>distrait</i>, with the potential to be both nervily and deeply engaged’ (Roe 2002, pp.87–8).<i> </i>The distinctive grey checked dress is markedly similar to that worn by Dorothy McNeill in John’s portrait <i>The Student </i>1903–4 (Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester), suggesting that is was one of the artist’s props.</p>
<p>The portrait’s subject, in which a woman sits alone in an interior,<i> </i>is characteristic of John’s work from this period. David Jenkins Brown has argued that this format is reflective of the artist’s own retiring personality: ‘no one would doubt who it is that lives in her empty room’ (quoted in Rotraud Sakerlotzky, ‘Interior: The Brown Teapot’, <i>Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</i>, vol.75, no.4, April 1988, pp.98–111, p.106). <i>Self Portrait </i>1902 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/john-self-portrait-n05366" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05366</span></a>) and <i>A Lady Reading </i>1909–11 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/john-a-lady-reading-n03174" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03174</span></a>) are similarly composed portraits in Tate’s collection. Art historian Rotraud Sakerlotzky noted in 1988 that John ‘had been searching for ways to create paintings in delicate colours since her student days’, which saw her move from London to Paris in 1898 to study with James McNeill Whistler at the Académie Carmen (Sakerlotzky 1988, p.103). <i>Chloë Boughton-Leigh</i> exhibits strong but subtle painterly qualities, which bear comparison with Whistler’s portraits, such as <i>Miss Agnes Mary Alexander </i>c.1873 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/whistler-miss-agnes-mary-alexander-n05964" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05964</span></a>).</p>
<p>John painted Chloë again in 1910–14 (Leeds Art Gallery, Leeds), showing her in a similar pose, but in reverse and looking more directly at the viewer. Chloë was also the model for John’s <i>Woman Holding a Flower </i>c.1908–22<i> </i>(Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham), numerous drawings by John and a portrait by her sister Maude, the undated <i>Chloë Boughton-Leigh</i> (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/leigh-chloe-boughton-leigh-n05802" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05802</span></a>). <i>Chloë </i>was favourably received when it was exhibited at the New English Art Club in 1908 and was described by T. Martin Wood as ‘one of the greatest achievements in the exhibition because of [its] sincerity’ (quoted in Dana Arnold and David Peters Corbett (eds.), <i>A Companion to British Art: 1600 to the Present</i>, London 2016, p.66).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Mary Taubman, <i>Gwen John: Her Life and Work</i>, Ithaca, New York 1985, reproduced p.66.<br/>Sue Roe, <i>Gwen John: A Life</i>, London 2002, pp.87–8.<br/>David Fraser Jenkins and Chris Stephens (eds.), <i>Gwen John and Augustus John</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Britain, London, and National Museum Cardiff, Cardiff 2004, reproduced pl.43.</p>
<p>Jo Kear<br/>May 2016</p>
<p>
<i>Supported by Christie’s.</i>
</p>
</div>

Summary
2016-06-10T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>Gwen John trained at the Slade School of Art in London. She settled in Paris in 1904, working as a model and immersing herself in the artistic world of the city. She lived in France for the rest of her life, exhibiting on both sides of the Channel. The portrait shown here is of Chloë Boughton-Leigh, a close friend of the artist. It was likely painted in John’s attic room and studio in Paris. The subtle colour scheme, short foreground and her sitter’s informal pose suggest an intimate atmosphere.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2019-01-09T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>N04088</b> CHLOë BOUGHTON-LEIGH <i>c.</i> 1907
<br/> 
<br/>Not inscribed.
<br/>Canvas, 23×15 (58·5×38). The canvas has been enlarged by a strip of wood at the bottom; the original height of the canvas was 22 1/4 (56·5).
<br/>Purchased from the sitter through the N.E.A.C. (Clarke Fund) 1925.
<br/><i>Exh:</i> N.E.A.C., spring 1908 (78); N.E.A.C., <i>Retrospective Exhibition</i>, January–February 1925 (76); Arts Council, <i>Ethel Walker, Frances Hodgkins, Gwen John</i>, Tate Gallery, May–June 1952 (114, repr. pl.6).
<br/><i>Lit:</i> M. G. C[ompton], ‘Gwen John’ in <i>Leeds Art Calendar</i>, VIII, No.29, 1955, p.22.
<br/><i>Repr:</i> Sir Joseph Duveen, <i>Thirty Years of British Art</i>, 1930, p.109; <i>Tate Gallery Illustrations, British School</i>, 1938, p.101, as ‘Portrait’; <i>Burlington Magazine</i>,LXXXI, 1942, p.240, pl.3b.</p>
<p>Ellen Theodosia Boughton-Leigh (1868–1947), known by her family as Chloë, was, like Gwen John, a Catholic convert and latterly she and her sister Maude (q.v.) lived on Canvey Island. Maude was Gwen John's friend; both had studied at the Slade and probably met in Paris. The sisters were daughters of Edward Ward-Boughton-Leigh of Brownsover Hall, Warwickshire. Other <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/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portraits</span></a> of Chloë are in Birmingham, known as ‘A Woman holding a Flower’ (repr. <i>One Hundred Oil <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>Paintings</span></a></i>, 1952, p.24), and at Leeds (see Compton, <i>op. cit.</i>). A portrait almost identical to the latter was in the John Quinn Collection, New York, sold American Art Association, New York, 10 February 1927 (344; repr. Forbes Watson (ed.), <i>The John Quinn Collection</i>, New York, 1926, p.147). In all these portraits she is wearing the same locket as in No.4088.</p>
<p>That the Tate Gallery picture was the one exhibited at the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/n/new-english-art-club" title="Glossary definition for 'New English Art Club'"><span>N.E.A.C</span></a>. in 1908 is confirmed by a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/graphite" title="Glossary definition for 'Graphite'"><span>pencil</span></a> sketch in the Gallery's copy of the exhibition catalogue.</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
2004-10-05T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
actions: postures and motions adults Boughton-Leigh, Chloë domestic fine arts and music individuals: female interior - non-specific interiors named individuals objects people picture portraits sitting woman