Alice Spawls reviews Gwen John: Art and Life in Paris and London at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester.

Spawls observes that: “The pictures themselves are not large or flamboyant, and some are almost austere. But they seem to vibrate. There are suggestions of movement in the cloth, in the stippling of paint (which sometimes looks like wear or decay) and the shakiness of brushstrokes. Shadows swim. And more than this, the sitters catch us with their mocking half-smiles, their hauteur, their impassive stares.”