Jan and Cora Gordon

"The Sketch" of Wednesday 31st March 1915 contains a "Novel In A Nutshell" by Jan Gordon. This was written before his February departure for Serbia to serve with Dr. James Berry . I had not come across this before. THE DANDY. By JAN GORDON. THE infernal drumming of guns, which had died down at night fall, broke out again with the glimmer of the new dawn: gun-smoke smeared dirty finger-marks across the purity of the reddening sky, and, in the growing light, the mountain-tops seemed all afire, as though their very stones were smouldering. In the gloomy valleys, bursting shrapnel spotted the forests with sudden transient growths, like gigantic dandelion-heads, instantly dissipated by the morning breeze. Crouching in a ditch which had been their shelter during the night, the piou-pious waited tensely. Marchand, the Lieutenant, a few paces to the rear, leaned on his sword, glancing backward from time to time at the cannon-smoke which drifted slowly up behind him....

Cora Josephine Turner (1879-1950), later Cora Gordon, was a keen amateur musician. A report in the Buxton Advertiser of Saturday April 27th, 1901, gave the programme for the Friday night performance of the Buxton Amateur Orchestral Society and noted that Miss Turner was a violin soloist. She played "Il Trovatore." The concert "was attended by the elite of Buxton society." A portion of the proceeds from the concert were given to the Buxton District Nursing Association. Born in Buxton in 1879, Cora was 22 at the time. A year later, she became a student of Fine Art Anatomy at the Slade School of Art and studied here until 1906. She appears in a 1905 photograph of the annual Slade Strawberry Picnic . On finishing her course at the Slade she moved to Paris where she met fellow English artist  Jan Gordon . They were married on July 7th 1909 at the Parish Church of Saint Luke, Chelsea . Jan Gordon's 1927 "A Girl in the Art Class" is at least loosely b...

The Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Monday 31 July 1911, carries a review of the London Salon, including a rare early mention of Jan Gordon's etchings in the last paragraph. " THE LONDON SALON (From Our Art Critic.)  The real Academy—l am writing to those who think the Academy representative of modem effort and therefore worthy of consideration —is the London Salon of the Allied Artists’ Association at the Albert Hall. Perhaps I should say it is the real Academy in germ rather than in achievement, for though Mr. Pryde’s ‘Souvenir of Costume Ball” is one of the most expressive works in the main gallery, many of our men who count equally with Mr. Pryde have not yet entered this company. But the Salon gets rid of the great curse of the Academy, rules and the dead hand of tradition. Any artist can show work he himself thinks worthy ; and to a serious artist liberty does not often interpret itself as licence to be foolish. Much of the work here is poor; most of it sincere; the Soci...