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Jan and Cora Gordon

{{Short description|English artist duo}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2019}}

Jan and Cora Gordon were a British art duo and co-authors active in the first half of the 20th century. They are known as contributors to the "tramp memoir" genre of travel writing of the interwar period.{{cite book |last1=Davies |first1=Luke Lewin |title=The Tramp in British Literature, 1850—1950 |date=1 January 2022 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-73432-9 |page=181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N2dXEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA181 |language=en}}

Background

Jan Gordon (1882–1944) was an English printmaker, a painter and draughtsman, and journalist and critic, born Godfrey Jervis Gordon at Wokingham in Berkshire, England.{{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=123193 |title=Jan Gordon (Biographical details) |work=Research |publisher=The British Museum |year=2017 |accessdate=31 December 2018 }} His wife Cora Gordon (born Cora Josephine Turner in Buxton, England, also known as Jo Gordon, 1879–1950) was an English artist, writer, and musician.{{cite web |author=Hughes, Eden |url=http://www.askart.com/artist/Cora_Josephine_Turner_Gordon/11035515/Cora_Josephine_Turner_Gordon.aspx |title=Cora Josephine Turner Gordon |work=Artists in California 1786–1940 |publisher=askART |year=2018 |accessdate=31 December 2018 }} The couple, painters in Paris during the Edwardian period, were married in 1909.{{cite book |last1=Knežević |first1=Marija |title=Recounting Cultural Encounters |date=2 October 2009 |publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing |isbn=978-1-4438-1460-7 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-CFJDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |language=en}}

{{Infobox artist

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Cora Gordon

| honorific_suffix =

| image = CoraGordon1924.png

| image_size =

| alt = A white woman wearing a brimmed hat, a scarf wrapped around her face, and a dark jacket

| caption = Cora Gordon bundled up for travel in Scandinavia, from a 1924 publication

| other_names = Jo Gordon

| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| birth_name = Cora Josephine Turner

| birth_date = 1879

| birth_place = Buxton, England

| death_date = {{death year and age|1950|1879}}

| death_place = London, England

| resting_place =

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| nationality = English

| residence =

| education = Slade School

| alma_mater =

| known_for = {{nowrap|Travel writing; painting; madrigals}}; journalism/literary criticism

| notable_works =

| style =

| movement =

| spouse = Jan Gordon (m. 1909)

| partner =

| awards =

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}}

{{Infobox writer

| embed =

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Jan Gordon

| honorific_suffix =

| image =

| image_size =

| image_upright =

| alt =

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| native_name =

| native_name_lang =

| pseudonym =

| birth_name = Godfrey Jervis Gordon

| birth_date = 1882

| birth_place = Finchampsted, Berkshire, England

| death_date = {{death year and age|1944|1882}}

| death_place =

| resting_place =

| occupation = Printmaker; painter/draughtsman; journalist/critic

| residence =

| nationality = English

| citizenship =

| education = {{bulleted list|Marlborough College|Truro School of Mines}}

| alma_mater = {{bulleted list|London School of Art|{{nowrap|Academie Julien {{small|(did not matriculate)}}}}}}

| home_town =

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| spouse = Cora Gordon (m. 1909)

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}}

Biography

Both Jan and Cora exhibited at the 1910 Allied Artists Association London salon.{{cite book |title=The London Salon of the Allied Artists' Association, Ltd., 1910 : third year |date=1910 |page=82 |url=https://archive.org/details/AAALondonSalon1910/page/n82/mode/1up |language=English}}

Their first book, The Luck of Thirteen (1916),{{cite book |author1=Gordon, Jan |author2=Gordon, Cora |year=1916 |title=The Luck of Thirteen |url=https://archive.org/details/luckofthirteenwa00gord |publisher=Smith, Elder & Co. |location=London }} documented life in the Serbian mission of the Royal Free Hospital and an audacious escape during the 1915 retreat from Serbia. James Berry, leader of this mission, in his 1916 book{{cite book |author=Berry, James |authorlink=James Berry (surgeon) |year=1916 |title=The Story of a Red Cross Unit in Serbia |url=https://archive.org/details/storyofredcrossu00berruoft |publisher=J. & A. Churchill |location=London }} described the Gordons and their various exploits during their time in Serbia.

According to Berry,{{rp|page=224}}

{{blockquote|The chief credit for the success of the expedition seems to belong to Gordon, though how much was due to Mrs. Gordon's command of the Serb language cannot be estimated. ... The most extraordinary fact in the story of their escape is that of all the thousands of men, women, and children who fled from Serbia before the Austrians, a mere handful took the same route as Gordon's party.}}

Following the Serbia experience, Jan Gordon was active in the design of dazzle camouflage for WWI ships.{{cite book |author=Taylor, James |year=2016 |title=Dazzle: Disguise and Disruption in War and Art |publisher=Naval Institute Press }} He later held an exhibition of watercolours on the subject.{{cite news |author=Konodi, P. G. |title=War and Peace" exhibition of water-colours at the Little Art Rooms |work=The Observer |date=16 March 1919 |page=9 }} After the war, a painting journey to Spain resulted in the 1922 book, Poor Folk in Spain,{{cite book |author1=Gordon, Jan |author2=Gordon, Cora |year=1922 |title=Poor Folk in Spain |url=https://archive.org/details/poorfolkinspain00gordiala |publisher=John Lane |location=London }} which was the beginning of a long and popular series of Two Vagabonds travel books.Jan and Cora Gordon were signatories to the 1927 letter protesting the piracy of James Joyce's Ulysses in the USA.{{cite book |editor=Walsh, Keri |year=2010 |title=The Letters of Silvia Beach |publisher=Columbia University Press |pages=376 }}

Between them, the couple wrote 27 books, including five novels and five books on art, together with numerous magazine articles.{{Citation needed|date=January 2021}}File:Rn Armoured Car Squadron - transport of wounded on the Turkish front Art.IWMART4003.jpg

Associations

Jan and Cora Gordon had a wide network of artistic acquaintances in Paris between the wars. One of these, Myron Nutting (a friend of James Joyce), wrote affectionately about the Gordons, whom he last saw later in 1927 as they were planning their USA journey.{{cite interview |last=Nutting |first=Myron C., 1890–1972 |interviewer=Donald J. Schippers |publisher=University of California |location=Los Angeles |title=Oral History Program. Oral History collection, Dept. of Special Collections, University Library }} Screenwriter Charles Bennett had also reminisced about the Gordons in Paris at around this time, mentioning some of the cast of characters in their circle of friends: "Through Jan and Cora Gordon I saw the Latin Quarter as it really was. I dined at tiny, superb, but cheap restaurants; the Rotonde and the Dome became my local pubs. I met Picasso and Utrillo and Diego Rivera, and dozens of others."{{cite book |author=Bennett, C. |authorlink=Charles Bennett (screenwriter) |year=2014 |title=Hitchcock's Partner in Suspense: The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett |publisher=Univ. Press of Kentucky |pages=279 }}

Published works

  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=The Luck of Thirteen : Wanderings and Flight through Montenegro and Serbia | date=1916 | publisher=Smith, Elder & co | location=London |pages=378 }}
  • Also published as {{Cite book | title=Two Vagabonds in Serbia and Montenegro – 1915 | date=1939 | publisher=Penguin | location=Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England |pages=246 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Poor Folk in Spain | date=1922 | publisher=John Lane | location=London |pages=276 }}
  • Also published as {{Cite book | title=Two Vagabonds in Spain | date=1931 | publisher=J. Lane | location=London |pages=286 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | title=Modern French Painters | date=1923 | publisher=Dodd, Mead and Co | location=New York |pages=188 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Two Vagabonds in Spain | date=1923 | publisher=R. M. McBride | location=New York |pages=275 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=A Donkey Trip through Spain | date=1924 | publisher=R. M. McBride & company | location=New York |pages=273 }};
  • Also published as {{Cite book | title=Misadventures with a Donkey in Spain | date=1924 | publisher=W. Blackwood and sons | location=Edinburgh and London |pages=273 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Two Vagabonds in Languedoc : a Portrait Group in Prose | date=1925 | publisher=John Lane |location=London |pages=242 }}
  • Also published as {{Cite book | title=Two Vagabonds in a French Village : a Portrait Group in Prose | date=1925 | publisher=R. M. McBride and Co | location=New York |pages=242 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Two Vagabonds in the Balkans | date=1925 | publisher=R. M. McBride and Co | location=New York |pages=236 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Two Vagabonds in Sweden and Lapland | date=1926 | publisher=John Lane the Bodley Head | location=London |pages=326 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Two Vagabonds in Albania | date=1927 | publisher=Lane | location=London |pages=304 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=On Wandering Wheels : Through Roadside Camps from Maine to Georgia in an old Sedan Car | date=1928 | publisher=Dodd, Mead & company | location=New York |pages=336 }}
  • Also published as {{Cite book | title=On Wandering Wheels : Through Roadside Camps from Maine to Georgia in an old Sedan Car | date=1929 | publisher=John Lane the Bodley Head | location=London |pages=336 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Star-Dust in Hollywood | date=1930 | publisher=G. G. Harrap | location=London; Sydney |pages=300 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Three Lands on Three Wheels | date=1932 | publisher=W. Morrow and company | location=New York |pages=358 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | title=A Step-ladder to Painting | date=1934 | location=London }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Cora | title= Hiking On Horseback | date=1934 | location=London }} The Oxford Annual For Girls
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=The London Roundabout | date=1934 | publisher=Harrap | location=London |pages=354 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Gordon, Cora | title=Portuguese Somersault | date=1935 | publisher=R. M. McBride | location=New York |pages=311 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | author2=Bateman, Henry Mayo | title=Art ain't all Paint | date=1944 | publisher=Feature Books }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | editor=Smith, Jacob Getlar | title=Painting for Beginners | date=1946 | publisher=Garden City Pub. Co | location=Garden City, N.Y. |pages=293 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Hiler, Hilaire | editor=Gordon, Jan | title=The Painter's Pocket-book of Methods and Materials | date=1950 | publisher=Faber and Faber, limited | location=London | page=254 }}
  • {{Cite book | author1=Gordon, Jan | title=A Step-ladder to Painting | date=1966 | publisher=Faber | edition=2nd revised by Colin Hayes | pages=238 }}

References

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Further reading

  • {{cite news |work=The New York Times |date=3 February 1944 |title=JAN GORDON DIES; ARTIST, MUSICIAN; British Author, Lecturer and Traveler – Expert Player of Guitar, Mandolin }}
  • {{cite news |work=The Times |date=5 July 1950 |title=Obituary of Cora Gordon }}

External links

  • {{Commonscat-inline|Jan Gordon}}
  • {{cite web |url=http://www.pbase.com/hajar/art_of_jan_and_cora_gordon |title=Art featuring Jan and Cora Gordon |publisher=pbase.com }}
  • {{cite web |url=http://www.janandcoragordonart.com |title=Jan and Cora Gordon |publisher=R. D. A. Smith |date=25 August 2015 |author=Smith, Ru }}
  • {{cite web |url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=736548&partId=1&searchText=%22jan+gordon%22&page=1 |title=drawing |author=Gordon, Jan |format=Copy of watercolour |work=Collection online |publisher=The British Museum |year=1930 }}
  • [https://www.duncanjdsmith.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Forgotten_JanCoraGordon.pdf Forgotten Travellers: Vagabonds Abroad ] Essay on Jan and Cora Gordon

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Category:20th-century English writers

Category:20th-century English artists

Category:20th-century English musicians

Category:Married couples

Category:Art duos