Post by Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies

Two children on a Welsh beach. Pencils in their pockets. Watching strangers paint the sea. One would become the most famous British artist of his generation. The other, many argue, the greater painter. But history took decades to see her. Coming soon to Biographers in Conversation: Pre-eminent British biographer Judith Mackrell on 'Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John'. Gwen and Gus John grew up in Tenby, Wales. Lost their mother at 8 and 6. Grew up behind what Gus called ‘a wall of invincible shyness’. Then made their way, separately, together, in tension and in love to become two of the most significant British artists of the 20th century. Gus: gregarious, appalling, brilliant, melancholy. His letters decorated with tiny cartoons in the margins. Falling in love constantly. His own most searching critic. Gwen: methodical, luminous, armoured in shyness she wielded like a weapon. Writing hundreds of letters to Rodin, her lover, her idol and her obsession. Painting interiors of such concentrated stillness they outlasted almost everything her era produced. And Gus, in a moment of prophetic gloom, predicted: ‘In fifty years’ time I’ll be known as the brother of Gwen John.’ He was right. #BiographersInConversation #ArtistsSiblingsVisionaries #GwenJohn #AugustusJohn #JudithMackrell #Biography #WomensHistory #ArtHistory #DualBiography #Season5 #ComingSoon #LifeWriting #Podcast #BritishArt #panmacmillan Judith Mackrell