Partner Eileen Gray
Queer Places:
Slade School of Fine Art, University College London, Gower St, Bloomsbury, London WC1E 6BT, Regno Unito
3 Rue Joseph Bara, 75006 Paris, France
Académie Julian, Passage des Panoramas, Paris, Francia
Académie Colarossi, 10 Rue de la Grande Chaumière, 75006 Paris, Francia
Flaybrick Memorial Gardens, Birkenhead, Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England
Jessie Gavin (1876, Oxton, Cheshire, England - May 3, 1939, Birkenhead, Cheshire, England) was a Victorian-era artist and bohemian born in 1876 in the village of Oxton in the Wirral, Cheshire, England. She lived an unconventional life and is known as "Oxton's First Gentleman Jack" due to her fearless embrace of gender-defying attire, bisexuality, and her romance with pioneering architect Eileen Gray, and crossed paths with icons like Oscar Wilde and Picasso.
Gavin and Gray were classmates at the Slade School of Fine Art in London, which they both attended between 1900 and 1902.
In 1902, Gavin moved to Paris with Gray and another friend, Kathleen Bruce. They initially lived together in an apartment at 3, rue Joseph-Bara in the 6th arrondissement and enrolled at the Académie Colarossi before switching to the Académie Julian.
Gavin was a significant part of Gray’s early life in Paris. It is noted that Gavin would often wear men's clothing, which allowed her and Gray to access social spaces and "places where you can’t go without a man" during that period.
Gavin was part of the same creative and avant-garde social circle as Gray, which included figures like Percy Wyndham Lewis, Jessica Dismorr, and Kathleen Bruce.
The relationship between Gavin and Gray has been the subject of creative re-tellings, including theatrical performances (such as The Story of Jessie Gavin by Pauline Fleming) that highlight their shared defiance of societal expectations and their artistic partnership in the early 20th century.
Gavin also had a relationship with Renée Raoul-Duval (née Vautier, 1898–1991), a prominent client of Eileen Gray. Born to Mathilde and Karl Vautier, she married the French businessman Edgar Raoul-Duval in 1918. Renée was documented in Eileen Gray’s Journal de Caisse (cash book) as an early patron of her Parisian showroom, Jean Désert. Known for her sophisticated taste, she famously purchased several iconic pieces of Gray's functionalist and decorative art.
While both Gray and Gavin were part of the bohemian artistic scene in Paris and moved within circles that included prominent queer figures, Gavin is primarily documented as a close, long-term companion and friend who played a supportive role in Gray's early transition to life as an independent artist in France.
She passed away on May 3, 1939, at the age of 62. Her resting place is at Flaybrick Memorial Gardens in Birkenhead, Wirral, in the nearby Non-Conformist area of the memorial gardens.
Her life inspired the play The Story of Jessie Gavin, written and directed by playwright Pauline Fleming.
References:
 Eileen Gray and the Design of Sapphic Modernity: Staying In by Jasmine Rault |
Other references:
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