previous            A–Z            next        Hannah Gluckstein Pseudonym:        Gluck Hannah Gluckstein (1895–1978) was a British artist. She was born into great wealth as a member of the J. Lyons & Co. catering and food manufacturing family. Despite the conservative pressures of her large extended family, Gluck’s rebellious individualism conjoined with her class status, allowed her to pursue an extraordinary public life as an artist.        Following her schooling, Gluckstein attended St. John’s Wood Art School, near the family home, in London. After an initial rift with her family, her father gave her economic independence in the form of trusts. This financial freedom permitted her to pursue an unorthodox life in considerable style. She wore ‘male’ garments from expensive London establishment outfitters. She made such an effort to circumvent conventional notions of gender that she changed her name to the monosyllabic Gluck and refused ‘prefix, suffix, or quotes’. Gluck had numerous relationships with women, among them expatriate artist Romaine Brooks, society florist Constance Spry and the socialite Nesta Obermer, some of them were married at the time. See also Romaine Brooks. Source: Aldrich, R., Wotherspoon, G. (2001), ‘Gluck’, Who's Who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to the World War II, p.184 previous            A–Z            next