Ethel Leontine Gabain

Personal life

Ethel had four sisters and one brother. Her father was French and her mother, Bessie, was born in Scotland. Her father, Charles Edward Gabain was a well off French coffee importer and on his retirement he moved the family to England to The Manor House, Bushey, Hertfordshire. Ethel was born in France and lived there for over twenty years. When she moved to England she was well equipped. She knew the country and was able to speak fluent English due to the fact, from the age of fourteen, she had boarded at Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire. The school encouraged her art skills and commissioned her to paint a portrait of Miss Ann Watt Whitelaw, who was a prominent headmistress there from 1911-1925.

Ethel met her husband, John Copley, at the Senefelder Club. They lived in Kent for a time at The Yews in Longfield. Whilst here she adopted a small Remarque in the shape of a yew tree in the lower margin of her prints. She also used images of the pergolas and the sundial at their home. The family, Ethel, John, Peter and Christopher, moved to 10 Hampstead Square, NW3, where she had her studio on the top floor and John had a press which they used to work together.

In 1925 John was so ill it was decided that the family should leave England and live in Alassio, Italy for a time. They stayed there for two and a half years. Ethel painted the landscape and gave art classes.

Artistic career

It was the artist, F. E. Jackson, the director of the Central School of Arts and Crafts who first taught Ethel the art of lithography. The Central, which was established in 1896 by the London County Council, offered instruction in the trades which were thought to be more artistic – lithography being one of them. She was determined to produce her own lithographic prints and enrolled at the Chelsea Polytechnic for a time. Here she learnt how to use a printing press.

Ethel experimented with colour lithography and decided it was not how she wanted to work. She sought to produce brilliant rich black and white lithographs.

Melancholic Images

Whilst living and working in Paris she began to work on a theme centred on ‘melancholic young females.’ She produced numerous lithographic images of a lonely young female.

Ethel revisited this theme later on in her career and produce several different images of a sad young bride. She always used her favourite model, Carmen Watson, in these depictions. By the time Carmen was married in 1940 she had posed over sixty times for Ethel.

It was through one of these earlier images, The Striped Petticoat, she met Harold J. L. Wright of Messrs. Colnaghi and Co.

He saw this lithograph and contacted Ethel to ask her if Colnaghi’s could become her publishers. This led to a lifelong friendship.

Pierrot and Columbine

The melancholic theme continued with images centred on Pierrot and Columbine. Pierrot was based upon the character portrayed by Jean-Gaspard Deburau, a poignant, passionate and tragic person who plays the role of a sad clown madly in love with Columbine, a beautiful, young ballet dancer. Ethel loved the ballet and produced a series of young ballet dancers in different medias.

Books

In 1922, Monsieur Edmond Paix, a French collector, commissioned a special edition (495 copies of Jane Eyre) from Monsieur Leon Piton of Paris. He had seen one of Ethel’s lonely female lithographs, "The Striped Petticoat", and commissioned her to produce twenty-two lithographs for his edition; including a ghostly apparition of Jane Eyre.

In 1924, Ethel received a commission for nine lithographs for The Warden by Anthony Trollope, and this was published by Elkin Mathews and Marrot Ltd., in 1926.

Oil Paintings

For financial reasons and due to a fall in the print market Ethel, moved over to painting with oils. She sent her first oil painting, Zinnias, to the R.A. in 1927, where it was well received. She also painted a number of landscapes in oils.

Theatrical Portraits

Ethel became involved with her son’s (Peter) career and began to paint well known theatrical portraits. Peggy Ashcroft, Edith Evans, Adelaide Stanley, Flora Robson and Lilian Baylis were amongst some of them. Her portrait of Robson was awarded the De Laszlo Silver medal in 1933. In 1932 she was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists and to Royal Institute of Oil Painters the following year.

The Senefelder Club

Ethel met her future husband, John Copley, at the club. She became a prominent member and formed close friendships with A. S. Hatrick and Joseph Pennell and his wife, Elizabeth. In 1927 the club’s members exhibited at the Modern British Engravings Exhibition – held in the Pavilion de Marsan, a wing of the Louvre. In 1929 she exhibited in the British Art in Sweden Exhibition.

World War II

Ethel Gabain becomes a champion for “Women Workers”

War Artist

Ethel was commissioned by the War Artists' Advisory Committee and became a renowned female war artist. Her depictions which were used for propaganda purposes were based upon women working for the war effort. Many of these images can be seen on the Imperial War Museum’s collections web site.

War Depictions

These depictions helped to show the public every day scenes involving women during WWII. Women and evacuees, ARP workers, salvage workers, air raid workers, factory workers, Lumberjills, portraits of Barbara Ward, Caroline Haslett, and Captain Pauline Gower, ferrying pilots were just some of her war images.

One oil shows the momentous work of Sir Alexander Fleming in his laboratory where he had discovered Penicillin. This was followed by another oil showing the effect penicillin was actually having on a young injured girl.

Factory Depictions

Williams and Williams, Reliance Works, Chester commissioned Ethel to produce a number of lithographs and oils. One vibrant oil shows “Women Workers in the Canteen at Williams and Williams.”

Her works are held at the Imperial War Museum.

Manchester War Commissions

These were brought about by Lawrence Haward, the curator of The City Art Gallery. (Now Manchester Art Gallery.)

Ethel received two commissions from Ferranti Hollinwood – Working on the Cathode Ray Tubes and A Giro Compass; one from Richard Haworth & Co. Ltd., Salford – The Weaver; and one from the British Cotton Industry Research Association – The Shirley Institute of Cotton Research.

Ethel died on 30 January 1950. After her death John organized a memorial exhibition of her paintings and lithographs at the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, London.

Timeline