Waiting

Painter and printmaker John Copley (1875-1950) was born in Manchester. He trained at Manchester School of Art and in the studio of Nicol and Cope before entering the Royal Academy in London.

Copley took up lithography in 1906 and in 1910 helped Joseph Pennell set up the Senefelder Club for the revival of lithography as a creative medium, acting as its secretary from 1911 to 1915. It was here he met his wife and fellow lithographer Ethel Gabain, whom he married in 1913. He soon emerged as one of the pre-eminent lithographers working in England in the first half of the twentieth century. He produced over 250 lithographs in the period up to 1938, working initially in colour but then exclusively in black and white. In 1930 he was presented with the chief award and medal at the first International Exhibition of Lithography at the Art Institute of Chicago.

This portrait in this lithograph is of Ethel Gabain at the age of 31, on the eve of the First World War. Gabain was commissioned to paint a series of works during the war, notably on the Women's Voluntary Service, and on the theme of evacuation. It does, however, have a definite genre painting element. Artist Paula Rego says of the lithograph: 'As texturally masterful as Copley's Study No 4: Waiting is, the gaze of the nattily-dressed young woman at his gothic table makes her story more intriguing. I'd like to think she'd committed some heinous crime and was about to make a run for it', though Rego also refers to 'the precipice each character stands upon'. Who is the elegant gentleman, owner of the hat and gloves on the table? Where is he? What are the women's emotions towards him? There are definite cross-overs in theme and style with such elder contemporaries of Copley as Edgar Degas, Walter Sickert and William Strang.

See:

Culture 24, http://www.culture24.org.uk/art/art75826

Gerrish Fine Art, John Copley (1875-1950),  https://www.gerrishfineart.com/search.asp?types=Copley%2C+John+%281875%2D1950%29

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art   April 2018