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ABSTRACT
The mysterious and enigmatic artist Madge Gill (1882–1961) defied all expectations of being a working-class woman in the early twentieth century. Hidden away at home, she produced a seemingly endless wealth of unique artwork almost entirely away from the public eye. Gill was emigrated to Canada as a child and returned to London aged nineteen, where she became renowned for her large, mediumistic paintings. Gill had no formal training, she produced the work on her own terms outside of the male dominated mainstream art world, while connecting to spiritualism in response to her own psychological turmoil. In doing so, she became one of the most subversive artists to date, challenging all preconceptions of her supposed role in a gendered society. Her story tells us how domesticity and its loss may be retrieved not through a spatial experience but as an emotional or artistic one—providing new insights into how we think about the concept of the curative home.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
3 Ellen Boucher, Empire’s Children: Child emigration, welfare, and the decline of the British World, 1869–1967, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Eloise Moss, Charlotte Wildman, Ruth Lamont and Luke Kelly, ‘Rethinking Child Welfare and Emigration Institutions, 1870–1914,’ Cultural and Social History 14 (2017): 647–668; Roger Kershaw and Janet Sacks, New Lives for Old: The Story of Britain’s Home Children, (London, 2009); Philip Bean and Joy Melville, Lost Children of the Empire (London, 1990).
4 Dave Lorente of Home Children Canada (2000) https://www.britishhomechildren.com/canadian-bhc.
5 Ups and Downs 7, no. 2 (1 January 1901). Sourced and published with permission of Library and Archives Canada. Collection British Home Children and Advocacy Association .
6 Letter from Madge Gill to Louise Morgan Theis, January 1956.
7 Sara Ayad Chronology, Madge Gill Medium and Visionary 2012, Cambridge University Library, SPR papers.
8 ‘Myrninerest the Spheres’ (1926) Collection of the Grosvenor Gallery London. A self-published broadsheet by Gill’s son, Laurie, which describes Gill’s first inspiration in vivid detail.
9 Sussex Archives, Lady Chichester Hospital, 14 March 1923. Sara Ayad Chronology, Madge Gill Medium and Visionary 2012.
10 The Problem of Inspired Art, Prediction Magazine (1937).
11 Michael Morgan Theis interview with Sophie Dutton, 2018, Madge Gill by Myrninerest, published by Rough Trade Books in 2019.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid.
14 Ibid.
15 Daily Mirror article reported by Paula James, 6 May 1968.
16 Daily Mirror, 6th May 1968, 'Too Late - Mrs Gill's strange Journey to Mayfair' article by Paula James.
17 Letter from Madge Gill to Louise Morgan Theis. Newham Archives, Roger Cardinal’s summary and transcription (1986).
18 Daily Mirror Article reported by Paula James (1968) Collection Grosvenor Gallery
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Sophie Dutton
Sophie Dutton studied at UWE Bristol & The Royal College of Art and her work spans design & curation. In 2016 she founded Works by, for which she has curated exhibitions at the William Morris Gallery & The Line. She researched, edited and designed Madge Gill by Myrninerest, published by Rough Trade Books in 2019. She has curated an exhibition of Gill's work at the Midlands Art Center in Birmingham, which will run between September-November 2023. Email: [email protected]