Gwen
Le Gallienne (1874 - 1966) was an English painter and sculptor.[1][2]
She was the first woman allowed to sketch battlefield scenes by the British
War Office.[3]
Partner Louise Bryant, Yvette Ledeux
Gwen
Le Gallienne (1874 - 1966) was an English painter and sculptor.[1][2]
She was the first woman allowed to sketch battlefield scenes by the British
War Office.[3]
Gwen was born to Irma Hinton Perry and Roland Hinton Perry in 1874.[4] She was Richard Le Gallienne's step-daughter, and took the name Gwen Le Gallienne.[1] Her step-sister was Eva Le Gallienne. Her mother Irma was Richard Le Gallienne's third wife, and Irma and Richard married in 1911.[1][5] Gwen was considered somewhat of a celebrity, starting in the 1920s, due to her nonconformity to sexual and social norms which led her to stand out.[1] Her personality was even notable among the Montparnasse bohemian circle.[1] Gwen was noted for having an affair with Louise Bryant. Gwen was friends with Stephen Ward during this time.[6] Gwen and Bryant started their affair early in 1928, which caused much strain in Bryant's marriage.[7] Allegedly, Bryant's husband found Louise's personal notes about her affair with Gwen and this caused their divorce.[8][9][10] Gwen was also involved with Yvette Ledeux, a nurse, but Ledeux became involved with the painter Georges Malkine on a trip they all took in January 1929.[1] A historian of Surrealism has erroneously suggested that Malkine was homosexual[6] based on a Man Ray photograph of him kissing Yvette, who became his first wife, who wore her hair short like a man's.
Gwen was exhibiting her art by her twenties.[11][12] She had multiple solo shows of her work.[13] Le Gallienne was the first female painter who was allowed by the United Kingdom's War Office to go to war sites and paint scenes of battles.[3][14] Gwen also served in intelligence during the war for the English government.[6]
Georges and
Yvette Malkine, Andii de la Rivière, Robert Desmos and the sculptor Lasserre
Janet Flanner's review of the 1932 American Women’s Show reminded that a number of talented American artists were then active: “The work of Lillian Cotton, Gwen Le Gallienne, Janet Scudder, Ivy Troutman, and Lillian Fisk, among others, showed an amazonian quality of strength that did not surprise or fail to please. As a group, theirs was by all odds the best amalgamated work of the year”. This same letter included an assessment of work by Salvador Dali, Jean Cocteau (ink drawings), and Francis Rose, the newly discovered protégé of Gertrude Stein.
My published books:
