Early life Gabain had four sisters and one brother. Her father was French and her mother, Bessie, was born in Scotland. Her father, Charles Edward Gabain was a well off French coffee importer and on his retirement he moved the family to England to The Manor House, Bushey, Hertfordshire. Gabain was born in France and lived there for over twenty years. When she moved to England she was well equipped. She knew the country and was able to speak fluent English due to the fact, from the age of fourteen, she had boarded at Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire. The school encouraged her art skills and commissioned her to paint a portrait of Miss Ann Watt Whitelaw, who was the headmistress there from 1911 to 1925. In 1902, Gabain studied at the
Slade School of Fine Art in London before returning to France in 1903 to study at
Raphaël Collin's Studio in Paris. From 1904 to 1906 she studied at the
Central School of Arts and Crafts in London. The Central, which was established in 1896 by the London County Council, offered instruction in the trades which were thought to be more artistic – lithography being one of them. Gabain was determined to produce her own lithographic prints and also enrolled at the
Chelsea Polytechnic for a time. Here she learnt how to use a printing press. Gabain experimented with colour lithography and decided it was not how she wanted to work so she sought to produce brilliant rich black and white lithographs.
The Senefelder Club In 1910, Gabain and her future husband
John Copley, along with
A.S Hartrick and
Joseph Pennell, were among the founding members of the
Senefelder Club. When the Club held its first exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in January that year, In 1927 the club's members exhibited at the Modern British Engravings Exhibition – held in the Pavilion de Marsan, a wing of the Louvre. In 1929 she featured in the
British Art exhibition in Sweden. Gabain and Copley married in 1913 and they lived in Kent for a time at The Yews in Longfield. Whilst here she adopted a small remarque in the shape of a yew tree in the lower margin of her prints. She also used images of the pergolas and the sundial at their home. The couple and their two sons, the actor
Peter Copley and Christopher, moved to 10
Hampstead Square, NW3, where Gabain had her studio on the top floor and Copley had a press which they used to work together. In 1925 Copley was so ill it was decided that the family should leave England and live in Alassio, Italy. During the two and a half years they were there, Gabain painted the landscape and gave art classes and public lectures at the Alassio English School. In 1924, Gabain received a commission for nine lithographs for
The Warden by
Anthony Trollope, and this was published by Elkin Mathews and Marrot Ltd., in 1926.
Oil Paintings For financial reasons and due to a fall in the print market, Gabain moved to painting with oils. She sent her first oil painting,
Zinnias, to the Royal Academy in 1927, where it was well received. She also painted a number of landscapes in oils and theatrical portraits of well known actresses in character. These included
Peggy Ashcroft,
Edith Evans, Adelaide Stanley,
Flora Robson and
Lilian Baylis. In 1932 she was elected to the
Royal Society of British Artists and to the
Royal Institute of Oil Painters the following year. Also in 1933, her portrait of Robson,
Flora Robson as Lady Audley, was awarded the De Laszlo Silver medal by the Royal Society of British Artists. Gabain exhibited with both the
Artists' International Association and the
New English Art Club and, for extra income, would sometimes lecture on art history. In 1940, she was elected President of the
Society of Women Artists. WAAC published these as two sets of lithographs,
Children in Wartime with five images and ''Women's Work in the War other than the Services'', which had six images. In total WAAC acquired 38 works by Gabain during the War. For these commissions Gabain, although often in poor health, travelled all over Britain. She went to the Scottish Highlands to record the work of women lumberjacks, known as "lumberjills", at a
Women's Land Army camp in Banffshire and to Devon to depict children evacuated there from London. In 1945, she produced a series of portraits that included
Barbara Ward and
Caroline Haslett. Gabain's WAAC commissions allowed her to explore her interest in the innovative medical techniques which were being developed during the war. In 1944, as well as depicting Sir
Alexander Fleming working in the laboratory where he had discovered penicillin, Gabain died on 30 January 1950 at her home in London. After her death her husband, John, organized a memorial exhibition of her paintings and lithographs at the
Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, London. ==Memberships==