Ethel Léontine Gabain
Encyclopedia
Ethel Léontine Gabain was a French-English artist. She was the wife of print maker John Copley
and the mother of actor Peter Copley
, also called by her married name of Ethel Copley.
While she was known for her oil portraits of actresses , she 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.
Ethel met her husband, John Copley, at the Senefelder Club
. They lived in Kent for a time at The Yews in Longfield. Whilst here she adopted a small Remarque in the shape of a yew tree in the lower margin of her prints. She also used images of the pergolas and the sundial at their home.
The family, Ethel, John, Peter and Christopher, moved to 10 Hampstead Square, NW3, where she had her studio on the top floor and John had a press which they used to work together.
In 1925 John was so ill it was decided that the family should leave England and live in Alassio, Italy for a time. They stayed there for two and a half years. Ethel painted the landscape and gave art classes.
. 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.
She was determined to produce her own lithographic prints and enrolled at the Chelsea Polytechnic for a time. Here she learnt how to use a printing press.
Ethel experimented with colour lithography and decided it was not how she wanted to work. She sought to produce brilliant rich black and white lithographs.
Ethel revisited this theme later on in her career and produce several different images of a sad young bride. She always used her favourite model, Carmen Watson, in these depictions. By the time Carmen was married in 1940 she had posed over sixty times for Ethel.
It was through one of these earlier images, The Striped Petticoat, she met Harold J. L. Wright of Messrs. Colnaghi and Co. He saw this lithograph and contacted Ethel to ask her if Colnaghi’s could become her publishers. This led to a life long friendship.
and Columbine
. Pierrot was based upon the character portrayed by Jean-Gaspard Deburau
, a poignant, passionate and tragic person who plays the role of a sad clown madly in love with Columbine, a beautiful, young ballet dancer. Ethel loved the ballet and produced a series of young ballet dancers in different medias.
In 1924, Ethel received a commission for nine lithographs for The Warden by Anthony Trollope
, and this was published by Elkin Mathews and Marrot Ltd., in 1926.
, Edith Evans
, Adelaide Stanley, Flora Robson
and Lilian Baylis
were amongst some of them.
and his wife, Elizabeth.
In 1927 the club’s members exhibited at the Modern British Engravings Exhibition – held in the Pavilion de Marsan, a wing of the Louvre.
In 1929 she exhibited in the British Art in Sweden Exhibition.
, Caroline Haslett
and Captain Pauline Gower
ferrying pilots were just some of her war images.
One oil shows the momentous work of Sir Alexander Fleming
in his laboratory where he had discovered Penicillin. This was followed by another oil showing the effect penicillin was actually having on a young injured girl.
Her works are held at the Imperial War Museum
.
Ethel received two commissions from Ferranti
Hollinwood – Working on the Cathode Ray Tubes and A Giro Compass; one from Richard Haworth & Co. Ltd., Salford – The Weaver; and one from the British Cotton Industry Research Association – The Shirley Institute of Cotton Research.
Ethel died on 30th January 1950. After her death John organized a memorial exhibition of her paintings and lithographs at the Royal Society of British Artists
, Suffolk Street, London.
John Copley
John Michael Harold Copley is a British theatre and opera producer.He was born in Birmingham, West Midlands, son of Ernest Harold Copley and Lilian Forbes, and attended King Edward VI Five Ways. After a brief career as an actor, he became stage manager at Sadler's Wells in 1953 and resident...
and the mother of actor Peter Copley
Peter Copley
Peter Copley was a British television, film and stage actor.-Biography:Copley was born in Bushey, Hertfordshire, son of the printmakers, John Copley and Ethel Gabain....
, also called by her married name of Ethel Copley.
While she was known for her oil portraits of actresses , she 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.
Personal life
Ethel 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. Ethel 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 a prominent headmistress there from 1911-1925.Ethel met her husband, John Copley, at the Senefelder Club
Senefelder Club
The Senefelder Club is an organisation formed in London in 1909 to promote the craft of art reproduction by the process of lithography.The club was named in honour of Aloys Senefelder, who in 1798 invented the lithographic process....
. They lived in Kent for a time at The Yews in Longfield. Whilst here she adopted a small Remarque in the shape of a yew tree in the lower margin of her prints. She also used images of the pergolas and the sundial at their home.
The family, Ethel, John, Peter and Christopher, moved to 10 Hampstead Square, NW3, where she had her studio on the top floor and John had a press which they used to work together.
In 1925 John was so ill it was decided that the family should leave England and live in Alassio, Italy for a time. They stayed there for two and a half years. Ethel painted the landscape and gave art classes.
Artistic career
It was the artist, F. E. Jackson, the director of the Central School of Arts and Crafts who first taught Ethel the art of lithographyLithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
. 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.
She was determined to produce her own lithographic prints and enrolled at the Chelsea Polytechnic for a time. Here she learnt how to use a printing press.
Ethel experimented with colour lithography and decided it was not how she wanted to work. She sought to produce brilliant rich black and white lithographs.
Melancholic Images
Whilst living and working in Paris she began to work on a theme centred around ‘melancholic young females.’ She produced numerous lithographic images of a lonely young female.Ethel revisited this theme later on in her career and produce several different images of a sad young bride. She always used her favourite model, Carmen Watson, in these depictions. By the time Carmen was married in 1940 she had posed over sixty times for Ethel.
It was through one of these earlier images, The Striped Petticoat, she met Harold J. L. Wright of Messrs. Colnaghi and Co. He saw this lithograph and contacted Ethel to ask her if Colnaghi’s could become her publishers. This led to a life long friendship.
Pierrot and Columbine
The melancholic theme continued with images centred around PierrotPierrot
Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre , via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in...
and Columbine
Columbina
Columbine is a fictional character in the Commedia dell'Arte. She is Harlequin's mistress, a comic servant playing the tricky slave type, and wife of Pierrot...
. Pierrot was based upon the character portrayed by Jean-Gaspard Deburau
Jean-Gaspard Deburau
Jean-Gaspard Deburau, sometimes Debureau —born Jan Kašpar Dvořák—was a celebrated Bohemian-French mime...
, a poignant, passionate and tragic person who plays the role of a sad clown madly in love with Columbine, a beautiful, young ballet dancer. Ethel loved the ballet and produced a series of young ballet dancers in different medias.
Books
In 1922, Monsieur Edmond Paix, a French collector, commissioned a special edition (495 copies of Jane Eyre) from Monsieur Leon Piton of Paris. He had seen one of Ethel’s lonely female lithographs, "The Striped Petticoat", and commissioned her to produce twenty-two lithographs for his edition; including a ghostly apparition of Jane Eyre.In 1924, Ethel received a commission for nine lithographs for The Warden by Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope
Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...
, and this was published by Elkin Mathews and Marrot Ltd., in 1926.
Oil Paintings
For financial reasons and due to a fall in the print market Ethel, moved over to painting with oils. She sent her first oil painting, Zinnias, to the R.A. in 1927, where it was well received. She also painted a number of landscapes in oils.Theatrical Portraits
Ethel became involved with her son’s (Peter) career and began to paint well know theatrical portraits. Peggy AshcroftPeggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
, Edith Evans
Edith Evans
Dame Edith Mary Evans, DBE was a British actress. She was known for her work on the British stage. She also appeared in a number of films, for which she received three Academy Award nominations, plus a BAFTA and a Golden Globe award.Evans was particularly effective at portraying haughty...
, Adelaide Stanley, Flora Robson
Flora Robson
Dame Flora McKenzie Robson DBE was an English actress, renowned as a character actress, who played roles ranging from queens to villainesses.-Early life:...
and Lilian Baylis
Lilian Baylis
Lilian Mary BaylisCH was an English theatrical producer and manager. She managed the Old Vic and Sadler's Wells theatres in London, and ran an opera company, which became the English National Opera , a theatre company, which evolved into the English National Theatre, and a ballet company, which...
were amongst some of them.
The Senefelder Club
Ethel met her future husband, John Copley, at the club. She became a prominent member and formed close friendships with A. S. Hatrick and Joseph PennellJoseph Pennell
Joseph Pennell was an American artist and author.-Biography:Born in Philadelphia, and first studied there, but like his compatriot and friend, James McNeill Whistler, he afterwards went to Europe and made his home in London...
and his wife, Elizabeth.
In 1927 the club’s members exhibited at the Modern British Engravings Exhibition – held in the Pavilion de Marsan, a wing of the Louvre.
In 1929 she exhibited in the British Art in Sweden Exhibition.
War Artist
Ethel was commissioned by The War Artists Advisory Committee and became a renowned female war artist. Her depictions which were used for propaganda purposes were based upon women working for the war effort. Many of these images can be seen on the Imperial War Museum’s collections web site.War Depictions
These depictions helped to show the public every day scenes involving women during WWII. Women and evacuees, ARP workers, salvage workers, air raid workers, factory workers, Lumberjills, portraits of Barbara WardBarbara Ward
Barbara Mary Ward , in later life Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth, was a British economist and writer interested in the problems of developing countries. She urged Western governments to share their prosperity with the rest of the world and in the 1960s turned her attention to environmental...
, Caroline Haslett
Caroline Haslett
Dame Caroline Harriet Haslett, DBE, JP was a British electrical engineer and electricity industry administrator....
and Captain Pauline Gower
Pauline Gower
Pauline Mary de Peauly Gower , married name Pauline Fahie, was a British pilot and writer who headed the female branch of the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second World War....
ferrying pilots were just some of her war images.
One oil shows the momentous work of Sir Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
in his laboratory where he had discovered Penicillin. This was followed by another oil showing the effect penicillin was actually having on a young injured girl.
Factory Depictions
Williams and Williams, Reliance Works, Chester commissioned Ethel to produce a number of lithographs and oils. One vibrant oil shows “Women Workers in the Canteen at Williams and Williams.”Her works are held at the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...
.
Manchester War Commissions
These were brought about by Lawrence Haward, the curator of The City Art Gallery. (Now Manchester Art Gallery.)Ethel received two commissions from Ferranti
Ferranti
Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. Known primarily for defence electronics, the Company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index but ceased trading in 1993.The...
Hollinwood – Working on the Cathode Ray Tubes and A Giro Compass; one from Richard Haworth & Co. Ltd., Salford – The Weaver; and one from the British Cotton Industry Research Association – The Shirley Institute of Cotton Research.
Ethel died on 30th January 1950. After her death John organized a memorial exhibition of her paintings and lithographs at the Royal Society of British Artists
Royal Society of British Artists
The Royal Society of British Artists is a British art body established in 1823 as the Society of British Artists, as an alternative to the Royal Academy.-History:...
, Suffolk Street, London.
Timeline
- 1906 - student at the Central School of Arts and Crafts on Regent Street. Attended lithography classes at the Chelsea Polytechnic.
- 1908 - took a small studio in Paris and worked on lithos.
- 1910 - contributed six lithographs to the first exhibition of the Senefelder ClubSenefelder ClubThe Senefelder Club is an organisation formed in London in 1909 to promote the craft of art reproduction by the process of lithography.The club was named in honour of Aloys Senefelder, who in 1798 invented the lithographic process....
- 1913 – married John Copley in June. Settled in Longfield, Kent.
- 1950 - died
External links
- Underground Group and London Transport posters 1921-1935
- www.artistarchive.com displaying Wright catalogue of 255 lithographs
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/artists/ethel-leontine-gabain