Ethel Léontine Gabain (1883–1950) was a French-born British artist celebrated for elevating lithography into a major modern art form. Trained at London’s Slade School and later in Paris, she became known for psychologically vivid portraits and figure studies, using confident line and rich tonal range to capture mood and character. A founding member of the Senefelder Club, she helped revive and legitimize lithography in early 20th-century Britain, insisting on craft as much as expression. Gabain also worked as an illustrator and later expanded into oil painting, exhibiting widely and producing striking portraits, including theatrical subjects. During World War II she served as an official war artist, documenting evacuation and the essential wartime labor of women with empathy and directness—images that feel observant rather than staged. She eventually became president of the Society of Women Artists, reflecting her stature as both maker and leader in Britain’s art world. Gabain’s best work balances restraint with intensity: quiet scenes charged with humanity, rendered through disciplined drawing and luminous tone. Today she’s increasingly recognized as a key figure in British printmaking and an artist of witness whose images preserve the textures of real life.