British artist Gluck was born into a wealthy, Jewish family as Hannah Gluckstein on August 13, 1895. Their father founded and ran the restaurant and hotel business J. Lyons & Co. in their London home, where Gluck was able to study the arts. Gluck passed away on January 10, 1978 in Steyning, UK.
Gluck defied gender roles, rejecting any forenames, and celebrated females and lesbian relationships in their paintings. Medallion is one of their most popular works and depicts Gluck and their partner, Nesta Obermer. Much of Gluck’s art focused on portraits, picturesque oceanic themes and floral paintings, and later aging and death.
Gluck wrote of one of their late paintings, Credo (Rage Rage Against the Dying of the Light), (1970-3), “I am living daily with death and decay, and it is beautiful and calming, All order is lost; mechanics have gone overboard – A phantasmagoric irrelevance links shapes and matter. A new world evolves with increasingly energy and freedom soon to be invisibly reborn within our airy envelope.”
