Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein)

Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein) (1895 - 1978)

Born Hannah Gluckstein into the wealthy catering family that established John Lyons and Co., she rejected her name, choosing to call herself Gluck. She attended classes at St John's Wood School of Art (1913-1916) and during World War I joined the artist's community at Newlyn in Cornwall, where she received further training. Her background, social position and her own troubled and complex relationship with her family and society are invariably referred to and alluded to in any commentary on her painting. Gluck is known for her naturalistic portraits and still-lifes of flowers inspired by the flower arrangements of her decorator lover Constance Spry. After her affair with Spry came to an end, Gluck's output of flower paintings decreased. Her relationship with Nesta Obermer led to a change in both subject and style resultings in paintings celebrating their alliance, which she saw as a marriage and a true merging of souls.

During the 1950s Gluck also pursued a protracted battle with paint producers and the British Board of Trade about the quality of artists' materials and paints. She held her first exhibition at the Dorien Leigh Galleries in London in 1924, with five further solo exhibitions at the Fine Art Society, London in 1926, 1932, 1937, 1973 and 1980, the last of these being held posthumously. The Fine Art Society created a special 'Gluck Room' in 1932.

Text Source: Benezit Dictionary of Artists