Madge Gill

Maude Ethel Eades was born on 19 January 1882, in East Ham, Essex, (now Greater London). She was considered an illegitimate child and spent much of her early years in seclusion because her family couldn't stand the embarrassment. At age nine, despite her mother still being alive, she was placed in Dr. Barnardo's Girls' Village Home orphanage at Barkingside, Ilford, Essex.

In 1896, she was sent to Canada by Dr. Barnardo's Homes as a British Home Child, arriving aboard the S.S. Scotsman as one of a group of 254 children destined to become farm labourers and domestic servants for Canadian families.{{cite web |url=https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/home-children-1869-1930/immigration-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=129744 |title=Maud Eades (129744) |date=17 Nov 2015 |website=Library and Archives Canada: Home Children (1869-1932) |publisher=Government of Canada |accessdate=22 Nov 2020}} Upon arrival at Quebec City, she and the other girls in her travel party were taken by train to Barnardo's Hazelbrae Home in Peterborough, Ontario before being sent out on placements as domestics.{{cite web |url=https://www.britishhomechildrenregistry.com/Person/bhcInfo/5066 |title=Maud Eades |date=2016 |website=British Home Child Registry |publisher=BHCARA |access-date=22 Nov 2020}} Her name, Maud Eades, can be found inscribed on the "Additions and Corrections" side panel installed on the Hazelbrae Barnardo Home Memorial in Peterborough in 2019.{{cite news |author=Jessica Niznik |date=1 Aug 2019 |title=Tour the British home children sites in Peterborough on Saturday |url=https://www.thepeterboroughexaminer.com/news/peterborough-region/2019/08/01/tour-the-british-home-children-sites-in-peterborough-on-saturday |work=The Peterborough Examiner |location=Peterborough, Ontario |accessdate=22 Nov 2020}} After spending her teenage years working as a domestic servant and caregiver for young children on a series of Ontario farms, she managed to move back to East Ham in 1900 to live with her aunt, who introduced her to Spiritualism and astrology.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/outsider-artists-_n_6174684|title=A Brief And Visually Stunning Primer To Outsider Art|last=Frank|first=Priscilla|date=2014-11-20|website=HuffPost|language=en|access-date=2020-04-28}} During that time, she found work as a nurse at Whipps Cross Hospital, in Leytonstone.

At the age of 25, she married her cousin, Thomas Edwin Gill, a stockbroker. Together they had three sons; their second son Reginald, died of the Spanish flu. The following year she gave birth to a stillborn baby girl and almost died herself, contracting a serious illness that left her bedridden for several months and blind in her left eye.

During her illness, in 1920, Gill – now thirty-eight – took a sudden and passionate interest in drawing, creating thousands of allegedly mediumistic works over the following 40 years, most done with ink in black and white. The works came in all sizes, from postcard-sized to huge sheets of fabric, some over {{convert|30|ft|m}} long. She claimed to be guided by a spirit she called "Myrninerest" (my inner rest) and often signed her works in this name. As American scholar Daniel Wojcik noted, "like other Spiritualists, Gill did not attribute her art to her own abilities, but considered herself to be a physical vessel through which the spirit world could be expressed."{{cite web|last=Wojcik|first=Daniel|title=Madge Gill|date=7 March 2018|url=https://wrldrels.org/2018/03/07/madge-gill/|accessdate=1 February 2019}} However, she experimented with a wide variety of media including knitting, writing, weaving, and crochet work.{{cite web|last1=Cardinal|first1=Roger|title=Madge Gill: The Magic of Madge Gill|url=http://madgegill.com/Biography|accessdate=8 March 2015}} Extremely prolific, she was capable of completing dozens of drawings in a single night. The figure of a young woman in intricate dress appeared thousands of times in her work and is often thought to be a representation of herself or her lost daughter, and in general female subjects dominate her work. Her drawings are characterised by geometric chequered patterns and organic ornamentation, with the blank staring eyes of female faces and their flowing clothing interweaving into the surrounding complex patterns.[http://www.rawvision.com/books/outsider-art-sourcebook Outsider Art Sourcebook] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921184354/http://www.rawvision.com/books/outsider-art-sourcebook |date=21 September 2018 }}, ed. John Maizels, Raw Vision, Watford, 2009, p.79

In 1922, Gill became a patient of Dr Helen Boyle after Thomas Gill contacted the Essex Voluntary Association for the Blind, concerned for his wife's mental health. Dr Boyle admitted Gill for treatment at the Lady Chichester Hospital in Hove, known for progressive and kind treatment of women, and is thought to have been encouraging about Gill's creation of art.{{Cite book|title=Madge Gill by Myrninerest|others=Dutton, Sophie|year = 2019|isbn=978-1-912722-34-1|location=[London]|oclc=1124556488}}

In 1939, she exhibited one of her works at the Whitechapel Gallery. It was probably one of her largest works, measuring 40 meters wide, covering an entire wall in the gallery. She continued to exhibit her work each year at the Whitechapel Gallery up until 1947.

In 1942, from 1 July to August 4, she exhibited a large calico at the Artist Aid Russia Exhibition at the Wallace Collection, Hertford House, London.{{Cite web |title=Artists Aid Russia Exhibition London 1942 – Madge Gill |url=https://madgegill.com/exhibitions/artists-aid-to-russia-exhibition-london-1942 |access-date=2025-03-03 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=chronology – Madge Gill |url=https://madgegill.com/chronology |access-date=2025-03-03 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur |url=https://www.wallacecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/grayson-perry-delusions-of-grandeur/ |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=www.wallacecollection.org |language=en}}

Gill rarely exhibited her work and never sold any pieces out of fear of angering "Myrninerest".{{Cite web|url=https://www.messynessychic.com/2020/01/28/meet-mrs-madge-gill-the-outsider-artist-who-painted-through-the-spirit-world/|title=Meet Mrs. Madge Gill: The Outsider Artist Who Painted through the Spirit World|date=2020-01-28|website=Messy Nessy Chic|language=en-US|access-date=2020-04-28}} After her firstborn son, Bob, died in 1958 she started drinking heavily and stopped drawing. Following her death in 1961, thousands of drawings were discovered in her home; the collection is owned by the London Borough of Newham and is in the care of the borough's Heritage and Archives Service.[https://www.newham.gov.uk/Pages/Services/Local-history-and-archives.aspx Newham Archives and Local Studies Library] Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including The Los Angeles County Museum of Art, USA (1992), Manor Park Museum, London (1999), The Whitechapel Gallery, London (2006), Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava (2007), Halle Saint Pierre (Musée d'Art Brut & Art Singulier), Paris (2008, 2014), Kunsthalle Schirn, Frankfurt a.M. (2010), Collection de l'Art Brut, Lausanne (2005, 2007).

From 5 October 2013 to 26 January 2014, Gill's work was displayed at the Orleans House Gallery.{{Cite web|title=Madge Gill: Medium & Visionary at the Orleans House Gallery 2013 – Madge Gill|url=http://madgegill.com/exhibitions/madge-gill-medium-visionary/%20|access-date=2021-03-29|language=en-US}}

A major trilogy of exhibitions, showing over 600 of Gill's work, many previously unseen, took place at The Nunnery Gallery in London. It opened in May 2012 and lasted until January 2013.{{Cite web|title=Bow arts presents Madge Gill at The Nunnery Gallery 2012 – Madge Gill|url=http://madgegill.com/exhibitions/bow-arts-presents-madge-gill-at-the-nunnery/%20|access-date=2021-03-29|language=en-US}}

In summer 2019 Sophie Dutton curated Myrninerest at the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, which included "newly uncovered large-scale embroideries, textiles and archival objects, many of which [had] never been exhibited before".{{Cite web|url=https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-43/madge-gill/|title=What's On {{!}} Exhibitions {{!}} Madge Gill {{!}} William Morris Gallery|date=2019-08-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808083115/https://www.wmgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions-43/madge-gill/|access-date=2019-08-08|archive-date=8 August 2019}}

Some of her drawings are on permanent view in The Viktor Wynd Museum of Curiosities, Fine Art & Natural History,{{Cite web|title = the viktor wynd museum of curiosities|url = http://www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org/museum-curiosities/viktor-wynd-museum/viktor-wynd-museum-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history-now-open/#.VhEZ24sk--I|website = www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org|accessdate = 2015-10-04|archive-date = 6 May 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210506123951/http://www.thelasttuesdaysociety.org/museum-curiosities/viktor-wynd-museum/viktor-wynd-museum-curiosities-fine-art-natural-history-now-open/#.VhEZ24sk--I|url-status = dead}} whilst others are held by the London Borough of Newham Heritage Service.

Her work Crucifixion of the Soul (1936) was shown at the Venice Biennale in 2024, curated by Adriano Pedrosa.{{Cite web |last=Maps |first=Central Pavilion See on Google |date=2024-03-06 |title=Biennale Arte 2024 {{!}} Madge Gill |url=https://www.labiennale.org/en/art/2024/nucleo-contemporaneo/madge-gill |access-date=2024-10-18 |website=La Biennale di Venezia |language=en}}

File:Madge Gill nee Maud Eades (Waltham Forest Heritage).jpg

File:Pipeline bridge over Bow Creek near Cody Dock - 2023-08-20.jpg

Madge Gill, like many outsider artists, has continually been gaining fame since her death in 1961.{{cite web |last1=Murdoch |first1=Rosie |title=Artistic apparitions: the spirited works of Madge Gill |url=https://artuk.org/discover/stories/artistic-apparitions-the-spirited-works-of-madge-gill |website=Art UK |publisher=Public Catalogue Foundation |access-date=14 June 2024 |language=en |date=8 May 2019}} Her work is part of the permanent collection at the Collection de l'Art Brut in Lausanne, Switzerland, one of the central venues for the exhibition and support of outsider art.{{Cite web|title=Collection de l'Art Brut - Gill, Madge|url=https://www.artbrut.ch/en_GB/author/gill-madge|access-date=2021-03-29|website=Art Brut}}

In 2013, admirer David Tibet, himself an outsider artist, published an antiquarian-style book solely devoted to her work, the first of its kind.{{cite web|url=https://www.davidtibet.com/collections/digital-books/products/madge-gill-myrninerest |title=MADGE GILL - Myrninerest book (Standard edition) |work=DavidTibet.com |publisher=David Tibet |accessdate=17 October 2013 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022075455/http://www.davidtibet.com/collections/madge-gill/products/madge-gill-myrninerest-book-standard |archivedate=22 October 2013 }} Tibet's musical project with James Blackshaw, active in 2012, was named Myrninerest.

On 8 March 2018 a blue plaque commemorating Gill was erected at 71 High Street, Walthamstow, where she was born in 1882 and lived until 1890.{{cite web|url=http://walthamforestecho.co.uk/meticulous-madge-gets-blue-plaque/|title=Meticulous Madge gets blue plaque|work=James Cracknell|date=5 March 2018|publisher=Waltham Forest Echo|accessdate=9 March 2018}}

In 2021, an exhibition Nature in mind curated by Sophie Dutton and consisting of 20 reproductions of her work was installed at various locations in east London as part of The Line art trail.{{Cite web|date=2021-06-18|title=Walk on the wild side: Madge Gill brings flashes of colour to a landscape of grey|url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/jun/18/walk-wild-side-madge-gill-flashes-colour-landscape-grey-east-london|access-date=2021-06-18|website=The Guardian|language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120620140123/http://www.newhamstory.com/glossary/m The Newham Story]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090315011928/http://www.outsiderart.co.uk/gill.htm Collection of Madge Gill drawings] at Henry Boxer Gallery
• [https://sammlung-zander.de/en/magde-gill-2/ Madge Gill – Zander Collection]

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Category:British outsider artists

Category:1882 births

Category:1961 deaths

Category:Artists from the London Borough of Redbridge

Category:Artists from the London Borough of Newham

Category:English women artists

Category:Women outsider artists

Category:English spiritual mediums

Category:Drawing mediums

Category:Draughtswomen

Category:People from East Ham

Category:People from Ilford