Gluck
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3. And …‘HIG’darling. ‘HIG’ for ever more!!!
Bless you. Don’t be disappointed, but now that you realise how much this means to me, tell me that you understand and will do all I ask for my sake.
Your very loving Hig
It was the letter of a child anxious that her mother might prove an embarrassment on prize day. Like a child, Gluck felt that the power her mother had over her would extend to others too. It was not the letter of a forty-two-year-old woman, of considerable professional standing, brazen enough to wear men’s suits. Behind the wolf’s clothing there lurked a sheep or even lamb, the victim, not the aggressor. Gluck was afraid, as ever, of losing her will, of ‘being swamped’, by the mere mention of her family name.
On Saturday 13 November she got her hair cut in the morning then met Mr Westbrook and his men at the FAS for the erecting of the alder wood room. They worked all day Sunday too, until he and his foreman left in annoyance, leaving Gluck to supervise the work alone. On the Monday she arrived at the Gallery at 7.30 in the morning for the hanging of her pictures the day before the show opened. ‘Terrible day’, she recorded in her diary, an observation with which those who knew her pre-performance nerves and perfectionist standards, would not have demurred.
TEN
THE QUEEN WORE PEACOCK BLUE
Gluck’s 1937 exhibition ran from 16 November to 13 December. When it came to the staging of it, the Meteor did not stay as reticent as Gluck had hoped. The whole event had a distinct sense of an action replay. Mrs Gluckstein was more concerned in ‘truckling with temporary things’, like again getting Royal notice for her daughter’s work, than in waiting for the uncertain ‘dignity of Time’. She expended a great deal of energy in prompting the Queens Elizabeth and Mary to put in an appearance at The Fine Art Society. She exhorted Lady Clare Brooke, her friend at the Palace, to help. Lady Clare took the opportunity to elicit a ‘small donation’ for ‘a jumble sale for one of the Queen’s charities’, sold Mrs Gluckstein tickets for a children’s party: ‘Do take your grandchildren.… The Duchess of Kent will be there and perhaps you could persuade her to come to your daughter’s show’ and, as two good turns deserve one other,
asked the Admiral about your small problem and he says you should approach Queen Mary through Lord Claud Hamilton and the Princess Royal through her Lady-in-Waiting. He is afraid the Queen may not have time to come to your daughter’s show as she has every moment of her time planned out, but do send him the card with dates etc and if it can be arranged you know he will do his best.1
That was before Gluck’s plea for dignity and severance from the Gluckstein name. But, unable to resist doing what she felt to be best, two weeks after receiving Gluck’s letter, the Meteor wrote again to Sir Harry Verney (20 October 1937) telling him of the exhibition and urging him to prompt Queen Mary
to honour my daughter once again with her presence. Her Majesty was so gracious in coming to see Miss Gluck’s previous exhibition and I felt most happy, thrilled and excited at Her Majesty’s kindly expressions of approval of her work. The Press Day is November 16th and the Private View the following day. If I might suggest it, I think the Press Day would be the best to get a review of her work.
Sir Harry made known the invitation to Sir Gerald Chichester, Queen Mary’s Private Secretary, who wrote direct to Mrs Gluckstein. His reply was terse: ‘… in view of the many engagements she has already entered into for November, it will not be possible for Her Majesty to have the pleasure of inspecting Miss Gluck’s pictures.’
The Meteor in her work for charity was renowned for her persistence. ‘Not possible’ was an unacceptable answer:
October 23rd 1937
My Dear Sir Harry
Many thanks for your sending on so quickly to Queen Mary’s Private Secretary, my letter. Alas! I am sad at the reply received, a copy of which I herewith enclose. Perhaps I am to blame as I did not mention the exhibition was open for a month until December 12 or 13th.
I am writing to the Hon. Gerald Chichester, acknowledging his kind and very charming letter and rectifying my mistake by sending a card, like the one enclosed to you and Lady Joan and it will show that the 13th is the last day. The situation is indeed a rather delicate one. But I should indeed be sad, if by my own error, my daughter should be deprived of the great Honour of a visit by Queen Mary – who is so deeply interested in Art and has such a wonderful understanding of the technical side as well. I hope it is not too late to correct my error and that her Majesty Queen Mary may still find time to honour the exhibition with Her Presence at her own time and convenience.
With my deep appreciation of your kind and ever ready help at all times and with best wishes and all kind thoughts in which my daughter unites to you and Lady Joan.
Sir Harry’s recommendation was that she should not approach Sir Gerald again. ‘If I had a chance I would say a word. But no one knows better than I do how terribly full up these next few months are.2 In the event it was Nesta, a personal friend of Helen Graham, a Lady-in-Waiting to the Queen, who effortlessly scored the coup de théâtre. A word and all was arranged. Lady Graham called at The Fine Art Society, lunched with Gluck and Nesta at Bolton House and two days later wrote:
23 November 1937
Dear Miss Gluck
I told the Queen about your pictures yesterday and Her Majesty has said that she would like to look in quite privately and informally at the Gallery at 148 New Bond Street tomorrow (Wednesday) about 12.30.
Her Majesty does not wish any preparations made, or any visitors disturbed who may be going round, but I thought I would just let you know privately that the Queen was coming as I know she would like to go round with you.
Afterwards of course it will be quite in order for you to say that her Majesty has seen your Exhibition if you wish to.
Yours sincerely
Helen Graham
‘The Queen’, announced the ‘Court and Society’ column of the Daily Mail, 25 November 1937,
accompanied by Lady Helen Graham, paid an informal visit to the Fine Art Gallery to see the exhibition of painting by Gluck yesterday morning. Her Majesty, who was wearing a swagger suit of peacock blue velvet with a hat of the same colour, spent a considerable time in the Gallery, discussing the pictures with the artist.
Apparently Her Majesty found the pictures ‘decorative’, was ‘much amused’ by ‘Noel’ and ‘greatly interested’ in ‘They Also Serve …’, painted on George VI’s Coronation Day, 12 May 1937, by Gluck from a fifth-floor window of the Cumberland, and showing crowds of people and lines of soldiers at Marble Arch, waiting for the procession to pass. After the Royal visit, Gluck went on to lunch with Nesta and Molly Mount Temple at Gayfere House. Godfrey Winn was there, noting for his ‘London Letter’ in Every woman the Court gossip and the size of Lady Mount Temple’s aquamarines. On the following day Queen Mary, accompanied by the Dowager Countess of Airlie, visited the exhibition, as she had in 1932, and stayed for about three-quarters of an hour. There were no contentious paintings of bosoms this time to make her lorgnette slip. Comment on the Royal visits was made by all the daily papers, and each Queen had a page to Herself in Gluck’s Visitors’ Book.
Gluck’s friends rallied to make the occasion all it might be. Wilfrid Greene wrote the Preface to her catalogue, praising her freshness of thought, remarkable versatility, vigorous imagination, inherent simplicity and classical quality unspoilt by any trace of imitation. Nesta worked her social magic and encouraged the interest of critics and buyers: ‘Mr and Mrs Seymour Obermer’, announced The Times, 17 November 1937,
are giving a luncheon party at Claridge’s today in honour of Gluck.… The guests will include: Viscountess Davidson and Viscount Davidson, MP, Sir Philip and Lady Gibbs, Major-General Sir John Hanbury-Williams (author of The Emperor Nicholas II as I Knew Him), Lady Rumbold, Mr and Mrs Charles Morgan, Lady Mount Temple and Sir William Reid Dick (a trustee of the Tate Gallery). Afterwards a visit will be made to the private view of the exhibition.
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br /> And the Meteor was chastised by her daughter for getting in the way when the furniture arrived in the Gallery on the Press Day.
The alder room and the exhibition’s design received wide praise. ‘The result is tranquil and attractive’, said The Sketch. The large ‘Nature Morte’ of seeding plants was the focal picture in the show. ‘Youwe’ was shown alongside ‘Noel’, as Gluck had wished and Molly Mount Temple’s portrait hung by the entrance above the carved table, where 700 or so visitors signed their names with a quilled pen in Gluck’s red leather visitors’ book. The furniture, all from Louis Koch’s, was for sale, but nobody bought it.
The people in Gluck’s portraits were themselves in the news. Susan Ertz had brought out her latest novel, No Heart to Break, Joan Swinstead was being warmly reviewed for her performance of Lysistrata at the Gate Theatre and Stephen Haggard acclaimed as Marchbanks in Shaw’s Candida. (He was to die, aged thirty-one, in the impending war. Gluck’s portrait of him was also destroyed.)
Thirty-three pictures were shown on the limited wall space with more in reserve. There were Gluck’s usual themes: the stage, society people, flower pieces, idealized landscapes, and her lovers – this time Nesta, and the painter Mariette Lydis. Selling was brisk. Prices ranged from £20 to £300. Reviews spanned the art, society and gossip columns. ‘A brilliant exhibition of painting’, Bystander called it (24 November 1937):
I do not remember for years seeing such a display of versatility. Gluck’s flower paintings would be her strong point if her landscapes were not so brilliant, and her landscapes might get the top marks if it were not for her portraits or her still life.
Her pictures were reproduced in The Sphere, The Bystander, The Tatler, Studio, Apollo, Arts and Crafts, The Artist, Homes and Gardens, and a splash of seven of her best portraits in The Sketch. The Times (27 November 1937) commended her for the ‘clearness of her sense of form, her subtle use of colour and curiously reserved emotional content.’ T. W. Earp in the Daily Telegraph called her crowd scenes ‘little gems of humorous perception’ and the Daily Sketch in a personal interview described her as having ‘the profile of a Greek god’ with eyes that ‘shone like black diamonds’.
There was less comment about her name, Eton crop, plus fours and ties than in 1932. She was fêted at cocktail parties and at dinners with prospective clients. She went to tea with Sir William Reid Dick. There was success to celebrate with Nesta. They went to The Prisoner of Zenda and Morning Becomes Electra, and to parties with friends. And in the wings, but not entirely unobtrusive, the Meteor continued to involve herself in regal machinations to further her daughter’s career. Under the guise, totally fictitious, of acting as agent for a rich American benefactor, she bought, for £500, four of her daughter’s best pictures: ‘They Also Serve …’; ‘Lilac and Guelder Rose’; ‘Falmer Church’ and ‘Lords and Ladies’. ‘I have much pleasure in accepting your offer to purchase the pictures on behalf of a friend, who is to remain anonymous,’ Ernest Dawbarn wrote to her. ‘I understand that the purchaser would like these paintings to be placed among the Public Galleries and we will do our best to find Galleries who will be glad to accept them.’
The City Art Gallery, Manchester, was pleased to accept ‘White Lilac and Guelder Rose’ if bemused as to whom they were thanking or displaying. ‘My committee’, wrote their Curator to Mr Dawbarn,
were delighted at the gift and regretted that they could not express their thanks to the donor on account of the desired anonymity. Perhaps you will do so for them.… Does the artist prefer to be known simply as Gluck without any Christian name? I know that this is how she appears when she holds exhibitions, but I wondered if, on the tablet affixed to the picture she should be known by her real name.3
An effusive letter of thanks was forwarded to Mrs Gluckstein from the Gallery Chairman, and the Manchester Guardian recorded, on 18 December 1937, the acceptance by the Galleries’ Committee of the anonymous painting along with various dolls’ clothes, dress accessories, and an eighteenth-century French woven shawl from Miss Whitehead of Bowdon. The Birmingham Art Gallery expressed delight in being given ‘Falmer Church’, but the Tate Gallery dithered over ‘Lords and Ladies’ and despite many members of the Committee wanting to acquire it, in the end the Trustees declined.
As for ‘They Also Serve …’, well, The Queen had hesitated before it, which must mean its proper place was on a palace wall. To get it there, the Meteor and Nesta were in cahoots, concealment deepened and the truth got further stretched. While the Meteor directed, Nesta pulled the strings. Nesta wrote again to the Queen’s Lady-in-Waiting:
14 December 1937
My Dear Lady Helen
An American collector has bought four of Gluck’s pictures. One he has presented to the Tate, one to Manchester and another to Birmingham. The fourth one, the Coronation picture ‘They Also Serve …’ he feels strongly should be presented to Her Majesty The Queen if she would be willing to accept it, for it is such a personal picture and would remind Her of a unique moment in Her Life.
In his opinion, Gluck is the one young artist of outstanding genius in this country today (he has never seen her, he only knows her work) and he feels Her Majesty might like to have a specimen of her painting.
He has gone to America today and has left the picture in charge of Gluck’s mother, so in the event of Her Majesty being willing to accept it, she would bring the picture whenever you wished.
Isobel came in the last day of the Show and simply loved it! She too feels that the coronation picture should be kept in the family!
Thank you so much for asking me to tea next Monday but alas we shall be in
Plumpton and won’t be back until after Xmas.
Yours very sincerely
Nesta Obermer
Darling Meteor
Here’s the copy. I sent the letter this morning. Not a word to Gluck!
Much love
Nesta
The Palace was not anxious to accept anything from anybody. In her reply to Nesta (21 December 1937), Lady Graham said she needed the name of the American collector before she could ‘bring his offer before Her Majesty’…
I fully appreciate his thought that the picture would be a very interesting and fitting souvenir for the Queen to have of that unique occasion, but there is always the difficulty of accepting a gift of this nature from an unknown and, in this case – un-named donor.… Whatever the outcome may be, I am sure the Queen will be touched at the kind intention which has prompted this offer …
Nesta withdrew from the charade and gave the Meteor the letter to deal with as she would. She wrote to Lady Graham (27 December 1937) saying how deeply she regretted it, but she had promised the anonymous donor not to divulge his name:
… but as all arrangements are left to me, and so far the picture has not been paid for, I have decided under the circumstances to buy the picture ‘They Also Serve …’ so I can truthfully say it will be Gluck’s mother who has the great honour of asking Her Majesty’s acceptance of it, and I am sure the un-named donor will not mind.
I had the honour of presenting a work of my daughter to Her Majesty Queen Mary at the last Exhibition and it would give me great pleasure and happiness to offer for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth’s acceptance a remembrance of what must have been a most interesting day in Her Majesty’s life.
The Palace, passing no comment on the tortuous convolutions accompanying this act of generosity, graciously deigned to accept the gift:
Her Majesty is waiving Her usual rule in such matters, but the two facts that have weighed with her are: firstly that the Queen warmly appreciates your wish to present her with a specimen of your daughter’s work and, secondly, that this particular picture has a close connection with Their Majesties’ Coronation.
I am to assure you, therefore, that the picture will be greatly appreciated by the Queen and I am commanded to convey to you Her Majesty’s very sincere thanks for your kind thought.4
The picture was in the frame Gluck had d
esigned. ‘Time marches on’, remarked the framemaker, John Footman, at the notion of this frame on a Royal wall. As for the Meteor, her gratitude was beyond words:
… I am unable adequately to express to you what I would desire to convey. How deeply touched and grateful I am at the Queen’s gracious acceptance of my dear daughter’s painting. Will you please convey to Her Majesty how honoured I feel and how much happiness it has given me. I am sure Gluck’s heart will be gladdened at the knowledge of Her Majesty’s acceptance and the Queen’s appreciation of her work.
… May I wish their Majesties and the members of their family a happy and peaceful New Year and add how truly the King and Queen have reached the hearts of their loyal subjects by human understanding and personal help and sympathy …5
Gluck suffered some kind of depressive reaction after her exhibition, went to bed and would not speak to her mother. She spent Christmas down in Plumpton and then went off with Nesta for a week in Lamorna. When they returned, Nesta wrote to the Meteor:
January
Private and confidential
Dearest Meteor
… She is furious about the Queen getting the picture because she thinks your name has got mixed up with it!! I have looked completely ‘Blah’ and I pretend to know nothing about it. But I keep telling her that you’ve done a very fine thing in getting it where it will be appreciated.
Watch your step though, because she is really annoyed at the moment and says she is not going to say one word to you about it, so don’t you say anything either! Just let her simmer down! She is very nervy though she makes gallant efforts to master her nerves.… I do think there is something wrong physically for she looks so white and drawn …
I was interested to see how much more peaceful she became when she got to Cornwall. I think it’s a gloomy place to stay alone in, and I told her so, but she has such a real, solid affection for that part of the world that I think it would be a great mistake for any suggestion to be made at present to get rid of it. Let her get strong first.