Gluck (painter)

Family and early life Gluck was born into a wealthy Jewish family in London, England, to father Joseph Gluckstein, son of Samuel Gluckstein (1821–1873), the co-founder of Salmon & Gluckstein. Two of Gluck's uncles, Isidore and Montague Gluckstein, had founded J. Lyons and Co., a chain of high street tea rooms and a catering empire. Gluck attended St John's Wood School of Art between 1913 and 1916, after which the artist moved to the west Cornwall valley of Lamorna, joining the artists' colony there. Gluck moved to Cornwall with fellow art student, and partner, E M Craig, (1893-1968), who was known by just the surname Craig. and when an art society of which Gluck was vice president identified Gluck as "Miss Gluck" on its letterhead, Gluck resigned. In 1923 Romaine Brooks painted Gluck as Peter, a Young English Girl. In 1931 the architect Edward Maufe designed and built a studio extension to the house. According to Gluck's biographer Diana Souhami, "They sat together in the third row and felt the intensity of the music fused them both into one person and matched their love." Gluck referred to it as the "YouWe" picture. In 1937, Gluck had a third solo show at the Fine Art Society. The exhibition of thirty-three paintings, including Medallion, was attended by the Queen. In 1944, Gluck had an exhibition at Steyning Grammar School. Later life In the artist's seventies, Gluck returned to painting, using special handmade paints that were supplied free by a manufacturer who had taken Gluck's exacting standards as a challenge. Gluck mounted another well-received solo show of fifty-two paintings from across the artist's whole career. It was Gluck's first exhibition since 1944, and also the last. Gluck's last major work, begun in 1970 and completed in 1973, was a painting of a decomposing fish head on the beach titled Rage, Rage against the Dying of the Light; the title is taken from the poem "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" by Dylan Thomas. In 1977, Gluck donated 57 items, including clothing, accessories and pieces relating to the time spent in Tunisia, to the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery. Gluck died in 1978 in Steyning, Sussex at the age of 82. == Legacy ==

In 1980, two years after the artist's death, The Fine Art Society hosted a six-week memorial exhibition of 45 of Gluck's paintings. Virago reprinted the classic 1928 novel eight times in as many years, making Medallion perhaps one of the most famous depictions of a lesbian relationship. July-August 1998 saw a "a small but beautifully curated exhibition of some of the most memorable paintings" by Gluck, in Bexhill-on-Sea, at the De La Warr Pavilion. In 2017-2018, the painter was the subject of an exhibition at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, an accompanying book of the same title (Gluck: Art and Identity, Yale University Press), and an academic event at the London College of Fashion featuring the authors and curators Martin Pel, Dr Jeffrey Horsley and Prof Amy de la Haye. Gluck's painting ''Flora's Cloak'' (circa 1923) was acquired by Tate in 2019 "with funds provided by the Denise Coates Foundation on the occasion of the 2018 centenary of women gaining the right to vote in Britain". A 1942 self-portrait was donated by the artist to the National Portrait Gallery in 1973, and was used in the 2001-2002 exhibition Mirror Mirror: Self-Portraits by Women Artists. The NPG also holds a photographic portrait of the artist by Emil Otto ('E.O.') Hoppé Paintings by Gluck are held in major British public collections. Gluck was commemorated with a Google Doodle in Britain and several other countries on 13 August 2023. Two of Gluck's paintings, Tulips and Medallion (You/We) were exhibited in the Clark Art Institute's 2025 exhibit, A Room of Her Own: Women Artists-Activists in Britain, 1875-1945. ==References==