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Ethel Leontine Gabain
(1883 - 1950)
London Schoolgirls at Finnemore Wood – Camp Children in Wartime, 1940
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Ethel Leontine Gabain (1883 - 1950)
Size:
Height – 29.8cm
Width – 45.7cm
A large class of girls, dressed in gymslips and plimsolls, playing out in a field in front of a camp. The wooden camp buildings stand in the background. Each girl has a ball, which she tosses in the air and catches.
‘This one of the thirty-one camps which have been specially built in the country and are now housing schools from the evacuation areas. At present there are about 6,000 children in the camps. ‘Evacuation’ has made possible this valuable experiment in country boarding schools, and when peace comes, it is not likely that they will disappear.’ (from portfolio notes, Children in Wartime).
Ethel Gabain was born in France but received her formal art
education in London ‘ at the Slade School of Fine Art (1902) and
the Central School of Arts and Crafts (1904’06) ‘ as well as Paris
(1903’04).
In 1908 she co-founded with John Copley (1875’1950) and
A.S. Hartrick (1864’1950) the Senefelder Club, which sought to
promote the art of lithography. The sale of her prints provided her
with a working income. She married John Copley in 1913. In 1926,
she provided illustrations for Anthony Trollope’s The Warden.
She exhibited throughout her career, including at the RA, the
NEAC, and the SWA, and her oil painting Flora Robson as Lady
Audley was awarded the De Laszlo Silver Medal by the RBA in
1933.
Gabain was employed by the WAAC during WWII to produce
lithographs of Women’s Voluntary Services members. Despite
deteriorating health, she travelled across Britain to record women’s
invaluable contributions to traditionally masculine industries.
