The William Morris Gallery is returning to the works of outsider artist Madge Gill and Myrninerest, the spirit who possessed her

An exponent of mediumistic art and one of the foremost British Outsider artists, Madge Gill (1882 – 1961) endured a difficult early life.

Born illegitimately in Victorian Walthamstow, she was placed by her family into the care of Dr. Barnardo’s orphanage in Barkingside. From there she was enrolled in the British Home Children scheme for orphans and sent to Canada, where she endured hard labour and poor living conditions.

She saved everything she earned and returned to London in 1900 to work as a nurse at Whipps Cross hospital in Leyton. She married and had three sons, one of whom died in the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918.

In 1919 she gave birth to a daughter who was stillborn. Complications proved almost fatal and a lengthy illness resulted in the loss of her left eye. Her grief manifested itself in a deep depression and she underwent treatment in Hove for an undiagnosed psychiatric condition.

On March 3 1920 at age 38, Gill was first ‘possessed’ by a spirit she referred to as Myrninerest, with whom she maintained contact with for the rest of her life.

During these trances, she would draw frenetic improvisations with an almost hallucinatory quality producing an extraordinary number of artworks, primarily drawings in ink on paper and calico. She would often make her art at night by candlelight, drawing at a rapid pace.[…]

More: https://museumcrush.org/the-art-of-madge-gill-and-myrninerest-the-spirit-who-possessed-her/