Chloë Boughton-Leigh

1898

First visit to Paris: Whistler’s school

In 1898 she made her first visit to Paris with two friends from the Slade and studied under James McNeill Whistler at his school, the Académie Carmen. She returned to London in 1899.

1900

Debut at the New English Art Club

In 1900 she exhibited her work for the first time, at the New English Art Club (NEAC) in London.

late 1903

Leaves for France with Dorelia McNeill

In late 1903 she travelled to France with her friend Dorelia McNeill, Augustus John’s lover, whose daughter Vivien would also become an artist. Landing in Bordeaux, they set off on foot, intending to reach Rome, sleeping in fields and living on money earned by selling portrait sketches, but made it only as far as Toulouse; when she first arrived in France Gwen lived in poverty, on a diet of mostly figs and bread.

1904

Begins modelling for Rodin and becomes his lover

In that same year she began modelling for the sculptor Auguste Rodin and became his lover after being introduced by Hilda Flodin. Rodin used her as the model for a muse in his unfinished monument to Whistler.

1904–1914

Ten years of devotion to Rodin: thousands of letters

Her devotion to Rodin, the most famous artist of his time and 35 years older than her, continued unabated for the next ten years, as documented in her thousands of fervent letters to him. Given to fierce attachments to both men and women that were sometimes disturbing to them, she was eventually kept at a distance by Rodin, despite his genuine feeling for her, through the use of concierges and secretaries.

1910

Her patron John Quinn begins buying her work

The American collector John Quinn, from 1910 until his death in 1924, purchased the majority of the works that Gwen John sold; his support freed her from having to work as a model and enabled her to devote herself to her work. He also helped to organise the 1913 Armory Show in New York, in which one of her paintings was included.