I saw Phantom Thread for the second time last night and noticed this painting, “Young Woman Holding a Black Cat” by Gwen John, sitting in Reynolds’ attic in his country house, in the scene where he takes Alma’s measurements. The reason I noticed is because I also have a print of this painting hanging in my living room and I love Gwen John’s work.
Any way I thought it was an interesting choice given Gwen John’s life. I’ve definitely mentioned her before here. She was a Welsh painter whose portraits of young women never received proper recognition until, you guessed it, after she died. She was also once one of the many “muses” and lovers of sculptor Auguste Rodin, who she met while working as a professional art model. She then became the basis for his sculpture “Monument to James McNeill Whistler.”
John’s life as Rodin’s muse is much different than Alma’s in Phantom Thread. When Alma says “I can stand endlessly” as Reynolds’ model, there is no sense of servitude. John, instead, would remark to Rodin, who I’ll add was 40 years older than her, that he could have any pose he wanted from her because she was “supple.” From the Dictionary of Artists’ Models:
John’s relationship with Rodin is often written about as being obsessive. Yes she wrote him regular letters between 1904 and nearly right until he died in 1917, but I’m not sure she was, as an old Telegraph article describes her, his stalker. But John did clearly love Rodin and wanted to be a part of his life in ways that he could not accommodate, whether it was because of his demanding work or womanizing behavior, in ways that remind me of Phantom Thread. Sue Roe writes in her biography on John, A Painter’s Life:
Rodin also had a sort of Cyril (who in the film plays Reynold’s loyal sister), one of his first models Rose Beuret (the aforementioned Rose.) Beuret too was an artist and stayed with Rodin, on and off, for nearly fifty years, even having a child together. When he was with other women she served as his assistant and took care of his studio. “He would never leave her, she was the stable point of his world: she took care of his moquettes whenever he was away and maintained his home,” Roe wrote of Beuret in her book. “She remained silent, loyal through all his affairs. Gwen would never usurp Rose, and she never intended to try.”
So I’m not sure how deliberate the inclusion of John’s painting was in the background of Phantom Thread, where you can only see it for a second. But given John’s backstory, it seemed more than fitting given the plot of Phantom Thread.
