Jan and Cora Gordon

In the Hull Daily Mail of Friday 18 January 1935 is a story about the “Wanderings of Jan and Cora Gordon ” “ Many people who had read of the adventures of Jan and Cora Gordon saw the latter in person last night, when she gave a talk under the auspices of the Hull Young People’s Institute at the Royal Institution, Albion Street, Hull. According to schedule her talk “With a Ruc-sac Through Europe,” should have been illustrated by lantern slides. But in leaving home Mrs Gordon had picked up the wrong set of slides. It was therefore arranged that she give the ruc-sac talk first, without slides, and then show the other pictures. Mrs Gordon’s opening words were: “It seemed to us always better to travel without money than with it. If you travel with money, you can’t help going to a decent hotel. And if you go to a decent hotel you find the same accommodation. But if you are counting your cents very carefully, then you always go to the most uncomfortable – and probably most characterist...

The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer for Tuesday 20 January 1931 contains a note about a visit to Yorkshire by Cora Gordon . " A well-known pair of artists who have their studio in Montparnasse are Jan and Cora Gordon . You can go there to tea and drink cocktails if you like them better. You meet there all sorts and conditions of men, and you enjoy yourself very much. They gave their last party before leaving for England last week. I am not quite clear in my mind about an exhibition in London, and just when and where it is going to be, but I do know that Cora Gordon is going up to Sheffield at the end of the month to give two or more lectures about the travels which she and her husband have done together. Their books tell you a lot about these, but you have to hear them talk and play those wooden instruments from Albania to get the colour and fun of it all ." Their exhibition, at London's Twenty One Gallery , began on February 11th 1931 . 

"...As Beggars, Tramp Through Spain," published in 1927 has an introduction by Jan Gordon. Gordon concludes that " Mrs. Gordon and I, travelling across Spain with our donkey-cart , thought we had come into a fairly close contact with the Spanish people, but we are ready to admit that the Count and Countess Malmignati have gone far deeper than we did. Here is a new Lazarillo de Tormes and a Beggar's Opera with song and dance complete ." Gordon observes that since the war, the " newly-admitted pluck of women has been turned to exploration, and women travellers have shown themselves the equal of men in daring resourcefulness and energy, astonishing to the wild peoples amongst whom they have travelled ." He notes the attempted journey to reach the " Ruba-El-Kali " in 1914 (which was commented upon in 1926 by the explorer H. St. J. B. Philby ), the story of which was published by the countess in 1925 as "Across the Inner Desert...

Jan and Cora Gordon were fascinated by guitars, lutes and other stringed musical instruments. This interest was indulged during their 1920 visit to southern Spain (see: Guitars in Spain  and " Poor Folk in Spain "), where they learned to play the instruments. The story of a very unusual guitar given to them on that first journey is told here: Jan and Cora Gordon in Spain . Jan and Cora Gordon with their instruments, from the catalogue of their exhibition at London's Twenty One Gallery, which began on February 11th 1931. In 1931 the Gordons were in London for an exhibition at the Twenty One Gallery . Ashley Smith bought one of Jan Gordon's paintings, probably " New Forest Glade ," priced at 16 guineas and later given to his son for his birthday . The Gordons played a concert at the house of Doris and Ashley Smith and were reunited with an old acquaintance, Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein). My father, then a small child, listened to the gu...

The Gordons visited Spain in 1920, exhibiting paintings from the journey in early 1921 at the Burlington galleries and publishing " Poor Folk in Spain " in 1922. The dust jacket of the first edition has a delightfully simple design, showing a torero running from an enraged bull. Here it is: The book was republished for American audiences, by Robert M. McBride & Co in 1923, as "Two Vagabonds in Spain" and the enjoyable dust cover for that edition is adorned with extracts from the numerous drawings that illustrate the book, including the running torero. The image represents the "taunting of the unwilling bull" in a Murcian bullfight (pg 101). " The toreros flapped their faded cloaks at it, but whenever the bull was tempted to charge the man ran for safety and crammed himself through one of the bolt-holes in the palisade ."

The Observer (1927, March 6th) published a review of "A Girl in the Art Class" (Hutchinson, 7s. 6d.) under the title "An Artist's Novel," noting how the author's knowledge of art adds to the sense of authenticity. Other reviews made the same observation and included the following. " Jan Gordon's story has all the stamp of the real thing. A clever presentation of an instinct-personality. Raymonde Carpenter gives some delicious little sketches of her fellow students and their eccentricities. They strike one as having been done from life ." Evening Standard. " Vivid and veracious story. The standards of morality freely set forth will be amazing to the respectable ... nearly all have free views of sex " - English Review " This book strikes one as a very true picture of the Artist life .... You can hear all Jan Gordon's characters talking ." - The Queen. " The studio life in Paris is written by one who knows it ...

A review (by Jean Silvin) of a show by Jan and Cora Gordon in Paris during December 1913 at the Galerie Henri Manuel praised Jan Gordon's Mediterranean impressions, as follows, " Ses impressions méditerranéennes, par la richesse du couleur, le movement, l’atmosphère, le brio de facture et la limpidité des gris et des bleus légers nous permettent de donner à cet artiste toute notre sincère sympathie. ” Cora Gordon (1950) described how they lived in Majorca for three months, " living on grapes, figs, rice and the golden fish that abounded in the incredibly blue sea ." " For the first few days we wandered round - falling more and more in love with the character of the place, sometimes scribbling possible compositions in minute sketch books. Without hesitation or erasure Jan could, in a four-inch sketch book, set down panoramas of mountains, olive groves, or perhaps whole towns seen from an altitude ." A town in Majorca, ca 1913, etching by Jan Go...