BONUS • Lucy Wood on Gwen John: 'God's Little Artist'

David Trigg is joined by curator Lucy Wood to discuss the intersection of art and faith in the life and work of Gwen John.

Celebrated for her quietly intense paintings of domestic interiors and solitary female figures, John is recognized as one of the finest Welsh artists of the early 20th century. 

From the moment she left her home in Tenby, she pursued a fiercely independent course — first in London and then in Paris — where she lived until the end of her life. Although she was acquainted with leading European modernists, she never aligned herself with any group or movement. Instead, she nurtured a personal visual language rooted in subtle symbolism and a poetic vision of the world. 

John's conversion to Catholicism around 1913 had a profound effect on her art, evident both in her choice of subjects and the evolution of her style. For John, art making became a spiritual practice, and by the early 1920s, she was referring to herself as “God’s little artist.” 

Marking the 150th anniversary of Gwen John’s birth is the ambitious international touring exhibition “Gwen John: Strange Beauties”, which opened at National Museum Cardiff earlier this year and is now on display at National Galleries Scotland in Edinburgh until 4 January 2027, after which it travels to Yale Center for British Art, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington DC.

In this episode, Lucy discusses the once-in-a-generation exhibition, which brings together well-known paintings with rarely seen works on paper, demonstrating how John’s faith became deeply entwined with her practice. 

Lucy Wood is Senior Curator of Art at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. She is co-curator of Gwen John: Strange Beauties and co-editor, with Rachel Stratton (Yale Center for British Art), of the accompanying publication.