Madge GILL (1882-1961), "Un personnage en haut à droite", circa 1953, ink on paper. H. 63.5 x 51.5 cm Initially brought up by her mother and aunt in East London, Madge Gill grew up between an orphanage and a work programme for teenagers. After becoming a nurse, her aunt introduced her to spiritualism and mediumship. After a chaotic marriage and the birth of several children, a spirit called Myrninerest began to possess her. She began to draw and write down her visions, in a delirious, frenzied trance. The result is a series of automatic compositions, haunted by chequered patterns suggesting dizzying, swirling spaces. And in this hallucinatory proliferation, pale female faces float, perhaps the face of Myrninerest... Provenance: Galerie du Chêne 391/0 (392/3600) from 30 March 1999 then Catherine Clerc-de Goumoens collection