Self portrait, 1942

Born Hannah Gluckstein into a wealthy London family, the British painter Gluck attended classes at St John’s Wood School of Art in the 1910s and later lived at an artist’s colony in Cornwall. She consistently broke gender norms, and by 1918 had taken on the genderless name Gluck (‘no prefix, suffix or quotes’, as she asserted), wore masculine clothes, cut her hair short and smoked a pipe. Her 1936 double portrait of herself and her partner Nesta Obermer was later used on the cover of a 1983 edition of The Well of Loneliness (1928), Radclyffe Hall’s seminal novel about a lesbian relationship. Gluck designed and patented the ‘Gluck Frame’ and, in the 1950s, successfully campaigned for better quality oil paints in England.

Although this 1942 self portrait is small in scale, as was much of Gluck’s work, it has tremendous presence. The artist’s expression is simultaneously haughty and confident, yet somehow sad and weary. Gluck’s rigorous personality is implied by the focus on the head and the lack of flattery regarding her furrowed brow and clearly delineated lips.

National Portrait Gallery, London Given by the sitter and artist, Gluck (Hannah Gluckstein), 1973
© National Portrait Gallery, London