Elizabeth Joan Glass (1915–2000), was an English

textile designer Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

and painter.

Biography

Youth

Glass was born in

Orpington Orpington is a town and area in south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is 13.4 miles (21.6 km) south east of Charing Cross. On the south-eastern edge of the Greater London Built-up Area, it is south of St Ma ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. She was the oldest of three daughters born to John Pomeroy Glass and Edith Mary Muirhead. Her father, was a senior partner and later chairman of James Templeton & Co, then one of the leading makers of carpets in Britain. After her schooling Glass studied art at

Chelsea Polytechnic Chelsea College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London based in London, United Kingdom, and is a leading British art and design institution with an international reputation. It offers further and higher educat ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. One of her teachers was neo-Romantic English painter,

Graham Sutherland Graham Vivian Sutherland (24 August 1903 – 17 February 1980) was a prolific English artist. Notable for his paintings of abstract landscapes and for his portraits of public figures, Sutherland also worked in other media, including printmaking ...

. At this time she was influenced by Sutherland as well as

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

and

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

Career

During the war Glass joined the

Women's Royal Naval Service The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the ...

and worked in military censorship. After her marriage, she became known as Joan Clifford-Smith but continued to sign her work under her maiden name (Joan Glass). She is best known for her textile designs and one of her carpet designs became one of the biggest selling commercial carpets available in Britain during the 1950s and 60s. In 1952 she moved to ''Buck’s House'' in

Great Bardfield Great Bardfield is a large village in the Braintree district of Essex, England. It is located approximately northwest of the town of Braintree, and approximately southeast of Saffron Walden. The village came to national attention during the ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. While in Great Bardfield, Glass and her husband became friendly with the village art community known as the

Great Bardfield Artists {{Use British English, date=July 2015 The Great Bardfield Artists were a community of artists who lived in Great Bardfield, a village in north west Essex, England, during the middle years of the 20th century. The principal artists who lived t ...

. They organised a series of large open house exhibitions during the 1950s, which attracted thousands of visitors. Glass exhibited textiles and pictures at all these shows. Known for her fine sense of colour her textiles and paintings were mainly semi-abstract in design. Some of her work is included in the collection of the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden, Essex. The Bardfield art community fragmented in the early 1960s and Glass and her family (which now included four sons) briefly moved to London before relocating to (15th century) Little Baddow Hall, near

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

, Essex. During this time the artist’s output was restricted to making and decorating ceramics, Following the example of the earlier Bardfield summer exhibitions, Glass established in 1971 a series of large summer art festivals at her Essex home. These were very popular with the local art community and in 1974 she converted her house and established the Little Baddow Hall Arts Centre. Musicians and artists attracted to the centre included Howard Shelly, the Medici Quartet, John Miller and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

, as well as prominent local artists

Geoffrey Burnand Geoffrey Burnand (1 January 1912 – 17 August 1997) was an English painter, theatrical designer and mural artist. His distant relatives included the 19th Century Swiss painter Eugène Burnand and Sir Francis Burnand, editor of Punch magazine ...

, John Doubleday and

Humphrey Spender Humphrey Spender (19 April 1910 – 11 March 2005) was a British photographer, painter, and designer. Family and education Humphrey Spender was the third son of Harold Spender, a journalist and writer. Humphrey's mother, Violet Schuster, came ...

. According to her obituary, the Arts Centre’s ‘enormous popularity was due in no part to Joan’s own stamp of style and sophistication, combined with a welcoming lack of pretension.' Despite its popularity with the mid Essex art community, the arts centre closed in 1979 and in 1990 she moved to a smaller house in

Little Baddow Little Baddow is a village to the east of Chelmsford, Essex. The name ''Baddow'' comes from an Old English word meaning 'bad water', and which was the original name of the River Chelmer. The village is positioned on one of the many elevated hills ...

Personal life

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, she served in the navy where she met artist Stanley Clifford-Smith and they married shortly after the end of the war. The couple moved to Suffolk in East Anglia where they both painted and designed fabrics. After the death of her husband she abandoned art practice for the role of art patron.

Death

Joan Glass died in an Essex nursing home in 2000.

References

* Silas Clifford-Smith, ''Under Moonlight: a portrait of Great Bardfield artists Stanley Clifford-Smith and Joan Glass'', self-published, 2016 * Peter Andrews, ‘Utopian dream comes to an end’, (Chelmsford & Essex) ''Weekly News'', 5 July 1979, p 8 * Anon, ‘Introduction’, Joan Clifford-Smith Celebration Concert Programme, Rochester, 2001 * Martin Salisbury (Editor), ''Artists at the Fry'', Ruskin Press, Cambridge, 2003 * Frances Spalding, 'The Women of Bardfield' (exhibition catalogue), Fry Art Gallery, Saffron Walden, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Joan 1915 births 2000 deaths 20th-century English painters 20th-century English women artists British textile designers English women painters People from Great Bardfield People from Orpington