Ethereal Grace: Ethel Léontine Gabain Portrait Painting Style

Trained on 35 portrait paintings by the French-Scottish artist Ethel Léontine Gabain, later Ethel Copley, (26 March 1883 – 30 January 1950). She was a renowned painter and lithographer and among the founding members of the Senefelder Club.[1]. To see her works please go to

• wikiart.org/en/ethel-leontine-gabain

• elle-belle10.livejournal.com/1882098.html

• tuttartpitturasculturapoesiamusica.com/2024/12/Ethel-Gabain.html

Usage tip: I like the output best with a Guidance Scale of 2.0-2.5, but feel free to experiment with it.

One of the pleasures of training LoRA is to come upon an artist that I've never heard of while searching for potential targets, whose style immediately clicks with my taste. Gabain is one of these artists. Her graceful portraits of elegant women make her works jump out at me, and I just have to make a LoRA with her paintings. I hope some of you will enjoy her style as much as I do🎈😎.

From ChatGPT:

Portrait of Ethel Gabain - Private Collection

Ethel Léontine Gabain (1883–1950) was a British-French artist best known for her contributions to lithography, portraiture, and war art, particularly in early 20th-century Britain. Her work, which bridges Romanticism and early modern realism, is notable for its sensitive depictions of women and its documentation of wartime civilian efforts.

🎓 Early Life and Education

Gabain was born in Le Havre, France, to a French father and Scottish mother. She studied at several prestigious institutions:

• Slade School of Fine Art in London

• Central School of Arts and Crafts, where she trained in lithography

• Académie Colarossi in Paris

Her dual heritage and education in both France and the UK helped shape a unique artistic voice, merging French elegance with British narrative sensibility.

🎨 Artistic Career

Gabain became a founding member of the Senefelder Club in 1910, a group formed to promote the art of lithography in Britain. Her lithographs, many of which featured introspective or melancholic young women, were widely admired and collected.

• Her favorite model, Carmen Watson, appeared in many of her early works, helping to establish a signature style of quiet, emotive portraiture.

• Gabain also illustrated literary works such as Jane Eyre, The Warden, and other classics with great nuance and sensitivity.

In the 1920s, as the market for lithographs declined, Gabain transitioned to oil painting and became known for her portraits of actresses, children, and upper-class society figures.

🪖 War Artist Contributions

During World War II, she was commissioned by the War Artists’ Advisory Committee (WAAC) to record the contributions of women in the war effort:

• Her subjects included members of the Women’s Voluntary Service (WVS), nurses, evacuees, and women in munitions factories.

• These works, mostly in oils, are now considered crucial visual documents of Britain’s home front during the war.

🏅 Recognition and Legacy

• She was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters.

• Her works are held in collections such as the Imperial War Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the British Museum.

• In 1948, she was awarded an honorary commission in the Army Education Corps—a rare honor for a woman artist of the time.

✨ Style and Themes

Gabain’s work is characterized by:

• A refined, melancholic realism

• Subtle emotional narratives, often centered on women

• Delicate use of color and composition

• Commitment to both technical mastery and human empathy

While Ethel Léontine Gabain is not as widely known today as some of her contemporaries, her influence—especially through her refined lithographic technique, sensitive portrayal of women, and contributions to wartime visual culture—can be seen in the work of several modern and contemporary artists. Here’s a list of artists whose style, subject matter, or media reflect a connection to Gabain’s legacy:

🎨 Modern & Contemporary Artists Influenced by Gabain

1. Paula Rego

• How she connects: Like Gabain, Rego focuses on the interior lives of women with emotionally charged, often unsettling compositions. Her illustrative approach to storytelling, especially in pastel, echoes Gabain’s narrative sensibilities.

2. Audrey Niffenegger

• How she connects: Best known for The Time Traveler’s Wife, Niffenegger is also a printmaker and book artist. Her monochromatic lithographs and etchings often depict women in psychologically complex situations, much like Gabain’s melancholic figures.

3. Kiki Smith

• How she connects: Known for exploring themes of femininity, illness, and mortality, Smith’s work—especially her prints—resonates with Gabain’s wartime hospital portraits and nuanced depictions of the human condition.

4. Amelie von Wulffen

• How she connects: Her mixed-media approach combines painterly figuration and historical references, often evoking a bygone world with an ironic or melancholic twist, similar in tone to Gabain’s post-Victorian nostalgia.

5. Clare Leighton

• Note: A contemporary of Gabain rather than a follower, Leighton’s wood engravings share thematic and technical affinities with Gabain’s lithographs. Artists inspired by Leighton are often also indirectly influenced by Gabain.

6. Nicola Tyson

• How she connects: Tyson’s figurative distortions and focus on female identity recall the psychological depth of Gabain’s quieter, more representational portraits—though her method is far more expressionistic.

7. Lubaina Himid

• How she connects: While stylistically different, Himid’s commitment to elevating overlooked voices—particularly women and the marginalized—parallels Gabain’s choice to center working-class and wartime women in her work.

8. Sarah Moon (photographer)

• How she connects: Known for her dreamlike, softly blurred photographs of women, Moon’s ethereal visual language can feel like a photographic echo of Gabain’s most lyrical lithographs.