0:00:02 > 0:00:05I really only remember her when she was very old.
0:00:05 > 0:00:09She was just this extraordinary physical presence.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13I apparently asked my mother, "Is Auntie Hig a man or a woman?"
0:00:13 > 0:00:15Because I didn't know.
0:00:17 > 0:00:21My first recollections of her, and I must have been quite small,
0:00:21 > 0:00:25of this figure in tweed, smoking a cigar.
0:00:28 > 0:00:33I mean, everybody was amazed by it, and you know,
0:00:33 > 0:00:35this was what she wanted to wear.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41She was a society painter.
0:00:41 > 0:00:45The people who bought her paintings were the lawmakers,
0:00:45 > 0:00:48and the aristocracy, and the upper echelons of society.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52And when you look at the visitors book,
0:00:52 > 0:00:54and see who attended these shows that she gave,
0:00:54 > 0:00:57it is from royalty downwards.
0:00:57 > 0:01:02There's Queen Mary on the 9th of November 1932.
0:01:02 > 0:01:05Sir Cecil Beaton's signature here.
0:01:05 > 0:01:07And there are lots of Rothschilds.
0:01:07 > 0:01:11Katharine Hepburn, Hartford, Connecticut.
0:01:11 > 0:01:12It became the thing to do.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15To go to her shows.
0:01:15 > 0:01:19Practically every well-known person in London was in that book.
0:01:19 > 0:01:24The Queen Mother, Elizabeth, with a page to herself.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29She said that she would only show her work in one-man shows.
0:01:29 > 0:01:31She is painting herself to look
0:01:31 > 0:01:34as much like a man as she possibly could.
0:01:34 > 0:01:36I look at that, and I'm sure lots of people would look at that,
0:01:36 > 0:01:38and think it's a bloke.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41I've known a lot of people in my life,
0:01:41 > 0:01:43and I've never known anybody like her.
0:01:43 > 0:01:48She pursued these things like that, and she actually got away with it.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13This is probably one of the most iconic pictures by Gluck.
0:02:13 > 0:02:16It's a portrait of her in the foreground,
0:02:16 > 0:02:19with her lover, Nesta Obermer.
0:02:19 > 0:02:20And to a lot of people out there,
0:02:20 > 0:02:22particularly Gluck collectors,
0:02:22 > 0:02:24and anyone who admires the artist,
0:02:24 > 0:02:26this is the painting in the exhibition
0:02:26 > 0:02:28that they will come to see.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32It is a very, very unusual picture, whatever it is.
0:02:32 > 0:02:36It's not because it's so remarkably well painted, or drawn,
0:02:36 > 0:02:39or anything. It's just got oomph,
0:02:39 > 0:02:42and shouts itself off the wall, as it were.
0:02:42 > 0:02:43Completely original, in a way.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47I really like her work a lot.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50And it's a great story.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02This is the archive, eh?
0:03:02 > 0:03:05This is the archive, mainly the family archive in here.
0:03:05 > 0:03:08That's a lot of Gluckstein archives up here.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11This contains all the Gluck archive.
0:03:11 > 0:03:13- And you can just see how they've been archived, like this.- I see.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23Gluck was born 1895 into this
0:03:23 > 0:03:27dynastic Jewish patriarchal family, really.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30She was the first-born, the eldest.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35They began as tobacconists, the Salmons and Glucksteins.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39They were extremely well off, a bit like the Rothschilds.
0:03:41 > 0:03:46They opened the first teashop in Piccadilly, where women could go,
0:03:46 > 0:03:50in respectable surroundings, have a cup of tea and not be pestered.
0:03:50 > 0:03:54And this grew, quite exponentially.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58They owned Lyons Corner house,
0:03:58 > 0:04:01they owned a lot of the London hotels,
0:04:01 > 0:04:03the Cumberland, the Trocadero.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09- So they were rich? - They were very rich.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12There were the expectations
0:04:12 > 0:04:14that she would be like the other Gluckstein women.
0:04:14 > 0:04:18That she would marry well, preferably a cousin.
0:04:18 > 0:04:21That she could, you know, dabble in the arts.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25There couldn't have been a wider rift between
0:04:25 > 0:04:28the family expectation and the reality.
0:04:29 > 0:04:33I mean, there's a picture there of her aged four.
0:04:33 > 0:04:38Dressed all in white, even the doll is dressed in white frills.
0:04:38 > 0:04:41She's absolute girl, in inverted commas.
0:04:42 > 0:04:46But she was a rebel.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50And the expression on her face, she really is thinking
0:04:50 > 0:04:52unutterable thoughts.
0:04:54 > 0:04:57At the very, very beginning, she had to conform,
0:04:57 > 0:05:00and she had to have whatever it was that you put on.
0:05:00 > 0:05:04But very, very quickly, she absolutely did not.
0:05:07 > 0:05:10She started dressing in men's clothes.
0:05:10 > 0:05:12She didn't want to call herself Hannah.
0:05:12 > 0:05:15She always hated her name, Hannah.
0:05:15 > 0:05:18She insisted on being called either Hig or Gluck.
0:05:18 > 0:05:23If anybody called her the wrong name, she just ignored them.
0:05:23 > 0:05:26She started calling herself Peter.
0:05:26 > 0:05:32And then she found a dressmaker to dress her in men's clothes.
0:05:35 > 0:05:39"Dear Louis, I'm flourishing in the new garb, intensely exciting.
0:05:39 > 0:05:43"It was designed by yours truly and carried out by a mad dressmaker,
0:05:43 > 0:05:46"utterly loony. It's most old master-ish,
0:05:46 > 0:05:47"very distinguished looking.
0:05:47 > 0:05:50"Rather like a Catholic priest.
0:05:50 > 0:05:52"I hope you'll like it,
0:05:52 > 0:05:54"because I intend to wear this sort of thing always."
0:05:57 > 0:06:01She started smoking a pipe.
0:06:01 > 0:06:03I mean, it was really quite something for 1915.
0:06:03 > 0:06:08And then she began an affair with an art student called Craig.
0:06:09 > 0:06:10Craig was a girl.
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Gluck ran off to Cornwall with Craig, to become an artist.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23There's a reason why she goes down to Cornwall.
0:06:23 > 0:06:27Because there's a colony of women who are down there,
0:06:27 > 0:06:32who are feeling liberated, feeling free to dress as they like.
0:06:35 > 0:06:40That's a picture of her lover, Craig, sketching on the rocks.
0:06:42 > 0:06:46She soon after going to Cornwall, she got her hair cut short,
0:06:46 > 0:06:49and she was living with the Newlyn Group,
0:06:49 > 0:06:51with Laura Knight, Munnings.
0:06:53 > 0:06:55It was probably the time, the first time in her life,
0:06:55 > 0:06:58where she felt she could be who she wanted to be,
0:06:58 > 0:07:02and she's mixing in a society that is tolerant.
0:07:03 > 0:07:06There's always been leeway in artistic communities.
0:07:06 > 0:07:09But saying that, there's always been much more leeway for men.
0:07:09 > 0:07:15Romaine Brooks was another artist who dressed as a man.
0:07:15 > 0:07:18Even though Romaine Brooks was American and living in Paris,
0:07:18 > 0:07:20they knew each other.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23They painted reciprocal portraits of each other.
0:07:23 > 0:07:25So, yes, there were others around.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Her mother blamed Craig,
0:07:29 > 0:07:33and said that when she left the pernicious influence of Craig,
0:07:33 > 0:07:35all would be well.
0:07:35 > 0:07:38But it didn't quite work out like that.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41Well, of course they were absolutely desolate.
0:07:41 > 0:07:43I mean, they couldn't... "She'll grow out of it.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46"She'll grow out of it, you know, of course, yes, she'll grow out of it."
0:07:48 > 0:07:49Not at all!
0:07:52 > 0:07:57Her father talked of his horror at her outre clobber.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59And his despair, really.
0:07:59 > 0:08:02Her mother talked about a kink in the brain.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09If you were female, if you were a girl, if you were Hannah Gluckstein,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11it wasn't what you did.
0:08:11 > 0:08:15There she was, in their view, masquerading as a man.
0:08:15 > 0:08:17In her view,
0:08:17 > 0:08:20she was getting closer to the identity
0:08:20 > 0:08:24that she felt was real for her, which was a masculine identity.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28She didn't want to marry some cousin that she felt nothing for.
0:08:28 > 0:08:31She didn't want it and wasn't going to have it.
0:08:40 > 0:08:44Gluck exhibited in one of the most prestigious art galleries in London,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47called the Fine Art Society in New Bond Street.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50She first exhibited there in 1926,
0:08:50 > 0:08:52and it remained her gallery for the rest of her life.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57They had the best and the brightest.
0:08:57 > 0:09:00So she must have impressed them with her skill,
0:09:00 > 0:09:02to be taken on as an artist.
0:09:02 > 0:09:04It's a really exclusive London gallery,
0:09:04 > 0:09:06with an incredible reputation.
0:09:06 > 0:09:09And, you know, it attracts a very wealthy clientele.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12It's society women, very rich men and women, titled people,
0:09:12 > 0:09:13who bought Gluck's work.
0:09:16 > 0:09:20They attracted the artists of the day,
0:09:20 > 0:09:23and I gather she wouldn't exhibit her paintings
0:09:23 > 0:09:26in a room with anybody else's paintings.
0:09:29 > 0:09:30She was a fabulous artist.
0:09:30 > 0:09:32She's long been one of my favourites.
0:09:32 > 0:09:36There is a painting by her of an actor of the time,
0:09:36 > 0:09:38Ernest Thesiger, who she was friends with - now, he was homosexual,
0:09:38 > 0:09:41he played in drag in many, many shows.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45But, of course, he married, because that was commonplace at the time.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48And it's just him, standing on his own, on stage in the spotlight.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51He's clearly about to take a bow, I think, in front of the curtain,
0:09:51 > 0:09:55and he's wearing, as would have been commonplace in drawing-room comedies
0:09:55 > 0:09:57of the time, he's wearing a white tie and tails.
0:09:57 > 0:10:02And, to me, it is one of the most painful paintings I have ever seen.
0:10:02 > 0:10:05The vulnerability of the person who has a secret,
0:10:05 > 0:10:08or the vulnerability of the homosexual
0:10:08 > 0:10:10who is trying to be bold about themselves,
0:10:10 > 0:10:13and yet trying to constrain themselves, literally,
0:10:13 > 0:10:16into society through the tightly tied bow tie
0:10:16 > 0:10:18and the stiff suit, and standing in the spotlight.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20And he stands there, looking slightly startled,
0:10:20 > 0:10:22and almost like a little boy.
0:10:22 > 0:10:24I love this painting.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26I think it's a remarkable painting.
0:10:26 > 0:10:29I would sell my house to own this painting, I think it's wonderful.
0:10:32 > 0:10:34These are all press cuttings
0:10:34 > 0:10:38for Gluck's 1926 exhibition at the Fine Art Society.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42All of them go straight to much more than her paintings.
0:10:42 > 0:10:44What she looks like.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49Her close cut hair, her man's jacket, her plus four trousers.
0:10:49 > 0:10:51They all say, you know, "girl with a pipe".
0:10:52 > 0:10:57"She dresses as a man and delights in painting Cornish scenes."
0:10:59 > 0:11:02There's lots of press cuttings that have titles like,
0:11:02 > 0:11:05"Why she dresses like a man, why she always wears menswear."
0:11:07 > 0:11:09But at no point is the word "lesbian" ever used.
0:11:19 > 0:11:24In the 1920s, clothing choices did not signify
0:11:24 > 0:11:27a particular kind of sexual identity.
0:11:35 > 0:11:38The high fashion of the time calls for
0:11:38 > 0:11:41a boyish look for fashionable women.
0:11:44 > 0:11:48This is a portrait of a woman who has all the telltale signs
0:11:48 > 0:11:53of female masculinity, she's got the monocle, the cigarette holder,
0:11:53 > 0:11:55she's got her hands in her pockets.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57It's not just about the boyish look,
0:11:57 > 0:12:01it's also about the stance, the bodily stance.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12When I look at some of those, I'm reading "lesbian".
0:12:14 > 0:12:19Yes. Well, that's not what anyone would have seen in the 1920s.
0:12:25 > 0:12:27The cropped hair and trousers look
0:12:27 > 0:12:29was actually a real fashion for the time.
0:12:29 > 0:12:31Later, of course,
0:12:31 > 0:12:36it starts to become more associated with female same-sex desire.
0:12:36 > 0:12:37But, at this point,
0:12:37 > 0:12:40you can be absolutely at the height of fashion.
0:12:42 > 0:12:44So this is Radclyffe Hall,
0:12:44 > 0:12:46and one of her most significant relationships
0:12:46 > 0:12:50is with Una Troubridge, who is a sculptor.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53They cut a dash on the London scene, very stylishly dressed.
0:12:53 > 0:12:56Radclyffe Hall, she was not particularly
0:12:56 > 0:12:58- seen as mannish in the 1920s. - Really?
0:12:58 > 0:13:01She was seen as elegant.
0:13:01 > 0:13:03She got her hair styled at Harrods.
0:13:03 > 0:13:07She would often attend dog shows with her partner,
0:13:07 > 0:13:10and they looked like countrywomen with their dogs.
0:13:10 > 0:13:13Nobody would have thought anything in those days?
0:13:13 > 0:13:14No, I don't think that many people
0:13:14 > 0:13:20really thought that she was much more than a literary celebrity.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22I mean, this is exactly the sort of fashions
0:13:22 > 0:13:25that someone like Dorothy Todd, the editor of Vogue,
0:13:25 > 0:13:28is really, kind of, promoting on Vogue's pages.
0:13:28 > 0:13:30She was actually in a relationship in herself with Madge Garland,
0:13:30 > 0:13:32who is one of the picture editors.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37It's certainly true that in the 1920s,
0:13:37 > 0:13:40there were menswear influences upon elite fashion,
0:13:40 > 0:13:43but the type of menswear fashion that Gluck wears
0:13:43 > 0:13:45is completely different.
0:13:45 > 0:13:47Women did not walk down Bond Street wearing plus fours,
0:13:47 > 0:13:51a baggy tailored suit, of a style that Gluck wore.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53I mean, this is the sort of clothes
0:13:53 > 0:13:55that a man would wear in the country,
0:13:55 > 0:13:57walking around the estate.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01She had these very extraordinary photographic portraits,
0:14:01 > 0:14:04commissioning the top photographers of the day, like Howard Coster,
0:14:04 > 0:14:07who described himself as the photographer of men.
0:14:07 > 0:14:11She goes to Angus McBean and Hoppe,
0:14:11 > 0:14:15all known for taking very strong and powerful photographs of men.
0:14:15 > 0:14:20When we look at photographs of Gluck, her hair is cut barber short,
0:14:20 > 0:14:21like that of a man. When we look...
0:14:21 > 0:14:24Especially, actually, when we look at the Hoppe portrait,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27you know, it's barber cut, razored.
0:14:27 > 0:14:30Very short. It's a man's haircut.
0:14:30 > 0:14:32So, what does that tell us?
0:14:33 > 0:14:35It tells us that Gluck wanted to look like a man.
0:14:36 > 0:14:39Why do you think she did dress as a man?
0:14:41 > 0:14:44Why do you think she did dress as a man?
0:14:44 > 0:14:48I supposed to show the world what she wanted to be.
0:14:48 > 0:14:49I don't know.
0:14:49 > 0:14:52I need a good psychiatrist to think of an answer to that.
0:14:53 > 0:14:56I think she is at ease here.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59You see, I thought she looked wonderful,
0:14:59 > 0:15:03because that's what she was meant to be.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05That was how she was.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08I mean, I think that's a very wonderful photograph.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12I think for her to have dressed in a feminine way
0:15:12 > 0:15:14would have been cross-dressing.
0:15:14 > 0:15:19We look at her today and say this is a woman who is cross-dressing.
0:15:19 > 0:15:22If she had dressed in a feminine way,
0:15:22 > 0:15:24that would have been cross-dressing for her.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28- Because it would have felt... - She would have felt wrong.
0:15:34 > 0:15:38What was the word for people like Gluck in those days?
0:15:39 > 0:15:43The scientific term that had come into use
0:15:43 > 0:15:48in the 1890s for both male and female homosexuality
0:15:48 > 0:15:51was sexual inversion.
0:15:51 > 0:15:55Because it's the idea that this is something topsy-turvy.
0:15:55 > 0:16:01The first person to publish in Britain is probably Havelock Ellis.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06And this is the first edition of Sexual Inversion.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09This was a term that sexologists would have employed.
0:16:09 > 0:16:12- The invert?- The invert.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17"The chief characteristic of the sexually inverted woman is a certain
0:16:17 > 0:16:19"degree of masculinity.
0:16:19 > 0:16:23"There is a pronounced taste for smoking, also a dislike,
0:16:23 > 0:16:26"and sometimes incapacity for needlework
0:16:26 > 0:16:29"and other domestic occupations."
0:16:29 > 0:16:30Well, you know...
0:16:30 > 0:16:31So?
0:16:34 > 0:16:37One of the characteristics of the invert
0:16:37 > 0:16:41was the ability in women to whistle very well.
0:16:44 > 0:16:47And in an even later edition,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50he said that the German sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld
0:16:50 > 0:16:53had told him about women who actually performed
0:16:53 > 0:16:55professionally as whistlers.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01So would Gluck be aware of any of this, do you think?
0:17:01 > 0:17:05I think it's quite possible that Gluck would have come across people
0:17:05 > 0:17:08talking about those ideas.
0:17:08 > 0:17:11So it would be somebody saying, "Oh, Ellis says this, Ellis that..."
0:17:11 > 0:17:14You know. "Inversion, etc, etc."
0:17:16 > 0:17:20Ellis's wife, Edith Lees Ellis, was herself a lesbian.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26They obviously had a very devoted relationship between them,
0:17:26 > 0:17:30but after their marriage, she fell in love with another woman.
0:17:30 > 0:17:32She had already had relationships with women.
0:17:32 > 0:17:35And she was, I think, one of his main informants.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37I mean, some of their ideas do indeed
0:17:37 > 0:17:40seem particularly weird to us now.
0:17:41 > 0:17:43These notions of inverts, you know,
0:17:43 > 0:17:45I think it was Havelock Ellis who came up with...
0:17:45 > 0:17:48Havelock Ellis, of course, famously couldn't have sex at all.
0:17:48 > 0:17:50This is our leading sex expert in this country,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53and he was an impotent man who married a lesbian.
0:17:53 > 0:17:57So I don't know why we took his view as to what people should be called!
0:18:00 > 0:18:02Did people use the word lesbian then?
0:18:02 > 0:18:05In Paris, they freely used the word lesbian.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08Natalie Barney said, "People call it unnatural,
0:18:08 > 0:18:12"all I can say is that it's always come naturally to me!"
0:18:12 > 0:18:16Here, I never saw any reference of Gluck calling herself lesbian.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22She called herself "he" and a boy, and "husband" when she fell in love.
0:18:22 > 0:18:27There are some pockets such as the Bloomsbury Group,
0:18:27 > 0:18:30who thought that doing something sexually with someone
0:18:30 > 0:18:34made them who they were. But most people did not think that way.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37The majority of people would not have
0:18:37 > 0:18:40understood themselves as a something.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43Whether, and you can put any category in there,
0:18:43 > 0:18:49you can say trans, or lesbian, or gay person.
0:18:49 > 0:18:53That habit of identifying is going to evolve
0:18:53 > 0:18:55much later in the 20th century.
0:19:05 > 0:19:08This is Bolton House in the heart of Hampstead Village.
0:19:08 > 0:19:10Gluck bought this in 1926.
0:19:10 > 0:19:14She was working hard for her next exhibition.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17It was the Gluckstein money that bought the house,
0:19:17 > 0:19:21it was the Gluckstein money that gave her this privileged life.
0:19:22 > 0:19:25She had servants, live-in servants.
0:19:25 > 0:19:28Everything had to be absolutely just so.
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Her clothes had to be laundered in exactly the right way.
0:19:31 > 0:19:33She was obsessive.
0:19:34 > 0:19:36She wouldn't think of having
0:19:36 > 0:19:38anything other than handmade clothes.
0:19:38 > 0:19:41And she was very particular about what she had.
0:19:41 > 0:19:43I mean, they had to be immaculate.
0:19:43 > 0:19:48And if somebody had actually given her a shirt or something like that,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50and it had a crease in it, "Take it back.
0:19:50 > 0:19:53"I'm not going to have it. You can do it again," you know.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Six years after she bought the house,
0:20:00 > 0:20:02Edward Maufe, who was also a friend,
0:20:02 > 0:20:04and a very well-known architect,
0:20:04 > 0:20:09designed, to her specifications, the state-of-the-art, modern studio.
0:20:09 > 0:20:11That's where she painted.
0:20:12 > 0:20:15Her father died in 1930.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18And so her brother, Louis, was in charge of Gluck's finances.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23Gluck and her brother Louis had got on very well
0:20:23 > 0:20:25when they were young, but there's nothing
0:20:25 > 0:20:28to make people fall out like sex and money.
0:20:30 > 0:20:32Of course, she was the first-born,
0:20:32 > 0:20:35and in that family set-up, the girls didn't count.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38And so her younger brother became head of the family,
0:20:38 > 0:20:42and she had to be kept,
0:20:42 > 0:20:44and ask for what she needed.
0:20:44 > 0:20:48And she wasn't in charge of her own finances, her own life.
0:20:48 > 0:20:51And I think it must have driven her bonkers.
0:20:51 > 0:20:53Let's be quite clear here, there are two people
0:20:53 > 0:20:56both with completely polar views,
0:20:56 > 0:20:59my father, the most conventional person you could meet,
0:20:59 > 0:21:01and Gluck, the most unconventional.
0:21:01 > 0:21:04So we have two people, brother and sister,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06who each want to be in control.
0:21:06 > 0:21:07And both poles apart?
0:21:07 > 0:21:10- And both poles apart.- Yes.
0:21:10 > 0:21:12If she'd really wanted to be independent,
0:21:12 > 0:21:14she probably should have broken entirely from them.
0:21:14 > 0:21:19But she wanted the money and all the freedoms that money brought her.
0:21:19 > 0:21:21She had this wonderful Georgian house,
0:21:21 > 0:21:23she had a car with a chauffeur
0:21:23 > 0:21:25to take her down to her studio in Cornwall.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28She was benefiting from the Gluckstein graft.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31You know? They'd made their money, she was spending it.
0:21:31 > 0:21:36But they weren't going to let her have it entirely on her terms.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42She was never without a woman in her life.
0:21:42 > 0:21:47So the woman who moves in is Sybil Cookson.
0:21:47 > 0:21:49Sybil Cookson was a journalist.
0:21:49 > 0:21:53She specialised in sport and law cases, so of course,
0:21:53 > 0:21:56Gluck painted boxing matches
0:21:56 > 0:21:58and legal trials.
0:21:58 > 0:22:02Unfortunately, Gluck wasn't faithful to Sybil,
0:22:02 > 0:22:05and Sybil found her, as she put it,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09in the wood shavings of the new studio with Annette Mills.
0:22:09 > 0:22:13# We want Muffin, Muffin the Mule... #
0:22:13 > 0:22:15Who I remember from my childhood,
0:22:15 > 0:22:20because she was on Children's Hour with Muffin the Mule.
0:22:20 > 0:22:24# We want Muffin the Mule. #
0:22:24 > 0:22:26Hello, everyone.
0:22:26 > 0:22:29You see what's going on on my piano today?
0:22:29 > 0:22:32It gives new significance
0:22:32 > 0:22:35to the theme, "We want muffin," everybody sings.
0:22:35 > 0:22:40# We want Muffin, Muffin the Mule... #
0:22:40 > 0:22:43Nice kiss. Until next time, goodbye.
0:22:43 > 0:22:46There's always a surprise in these stories.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49There's always a surprise in these stories!
0:22:49 > 0:22:54But because, you know, nobody mentioned being lesbian,
0:22:54 > 0:22:59it's a surprise to find the number of people who were.
0:23:06 > 0:23:08Lesbianism wasn't illegal, was it?
0:23:08 > 0:23:10Lesbianism was not illegal.
0:23:10 > 0:23:13There is this persistent myth that
0:23:13 > 0:23:18Queen Victoria could not believe that it happened, or her officials
0:23:18 > 0:23:21just could not bring themselves to bring this before her.
0:23:21 > 0:23:22But it's not true.
0:23:22 > 0:23:26It's just that lesbianism was pretty much invisible.
0:23:28 > 0:23:32There was an attempt to introduce an amendment to the act that had
0:23:32 > 0:23:38indicted Oscar Wilde, about acts of gross indecency between women.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40It went to the House of Lords,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43I think one of them said 999 women out of 1000 have never even heard
0:23:43 > 0:23:45a whisper of these practices.
0:23:45 > 0:23:47In the homes of the country,
0:23:47 > 0:23:51you are going to tell them that this awful thing exists.
0:23:53 > 0:23:55Silence is best.
0:23:57 > 0:24:00Things rather came to a head when Radclyffe Hall
0:24:00 > 0:24:04published Well Of Loneliness - a lesbian novel.
0:24:04 > 0:24:09It was published in 1928, the same year as Virginia Woolf's Orlando.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13It has a foreword by Havelock Ellis.
0:24:13 > 0:24:18It's a very gloomy story of a congenital sexual invert.
0:24:19 > 0:24:22This book, The Well Of Loneliness, is one of those things that,
0:24:22 > 0:24:25to this day, makes me sort of enraged.
0:24:25 > 0:24:27Because when I was growing up,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29this was the only book I'd ever heard of
0:24:29 > 0:24:32that had anything to do with lesbianism.
0:24:33 > 0:24:35"Father, is there anything strange about me?
0:24:35 > 0:24:37"I remember when I was a little child,
0:24:37 > 0:24:39"I was never quite like all the other children."
0:24:41 > 0:24:43"Her voice sounded apologetic, uncertain.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46"And he knew that the tears were not far from her eyes.
0:24:46 > 0:24:50"My dear, don't be foolish, there's nothing strange about you.
0:24:50 > 0:24:53"Some day, you may meet a man you can love."
0:24:54 > 0:24:57I mean, I always sort of wished there was a bin.
0:24:57 > 0:25:00I would just check this book in the bin. It makes me really angry.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03But you know, again, product of her time.
0:25:03 > 0:25:05At least she wrote about it.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07The sexiest thing that happens in it
0:25:07 > 0:25:10is that she writes, "She kissed her full on the lips.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13"And that night, they were not divided."
0:25:15 > 0:25:16The grand old men of England
0:25:16 > 0:25:19went completely crazy about The Well Of Loneliness.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Because she changed pronouns.
0:25:21 > 0:25:23"She kissed her, full on the lips."
0:25:25 > 0:25:31The editor of the Sunday Express publishes an editorial, and he says,
0:25:31 > 0:25:35"I would rather give a healthy boy or a healthy girl
0:25:35 > 0:25:39"a phial of prussic acid than this novel."
0:25:39 > 0:25:42Because prussic acid would only kill their bodies.
0:25:42 > 0:25:45This novel would kill their souls.
0:25:53 > 0:25:57And he calls on the Home Secretary to ban this novel.
0:25:58 > 0:26:02The Home Secretary, the Director of Public Prosecutions,
0:26:02 > 0:26:04all of them conspired in a kangaroo court
0:26:04 > 0:26:09to have this book censored and be burned in the King's furnace.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14Do you think she would have read it, Gluck?
0:26:14 > 0:26:16Gluck had read it, yes.
0:26:16 > 0:26:19Certainly, by 1940, she had read it.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24What happened was that it caused a pall of embarrassment and silence.
0:26:24 > 0:26:27You know, you mustn't be lesbian.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29That was the message that was going out.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31I think it shut people up.
0:26:39 > 0:26:43All of Gluck's work was autobiographical,
0:26:43 > 0:26:46and contingent on the woman who was in her life at any given time.
0:26:46 > 0:26:52So when she was with Craig, she painted Cornish scenes.
0:26:52 > 0:26:55When she was with Sybil Cookson, she painted boxing matches.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02But then came the truly significant relationship
0:27:02 > 0:27:06that took her work to the very heart of high society.
0:27:06 > 0:27:09"People are much too stuck in a rut with their flower decorations."
0:27:09 > 0:27:11So says Constance Spry,
0:27:11 > 0:27:14the famous flower expert who does the decorations
0:27:14 > 0:27:16for many state banquets and other great occasions.
0:27:16 > 0:27:20And why stick your flowers in table vases where they get in the way?
0:27:20 > 0:27:21That's Constance.
0:27:21 > 0:27:23Which I haven't seen before, ever.
0:27:23 > 0:27:26Flower arranger to the Queen and the aristocracy.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29She was a household name, really, Constance Spry.
0:27:32 > 0:27:36It was in May 1932 that Gluck first met Constance Spry.
0:27:36 > 0:27:38A client of both of them ordered
0:27:38 > 0:27:41some flowers from the great Constance Spry
0:27:41 > 0:27:44to be sent to Gluck at her house in Hampstead.
0:27:44 > 0:27:48And Gluck looked at them and decided, "I wanted to paint this."
0:27:48 > 0:27:53And so after about a week, Gluck sent a telephone message saying,
0:27:53 > 0:27:55"Come back and renew the flowers, I haven't finished yet."
0:27:55 > 0:27:58At which point Constance Spry got a bit curious -
0:27:58 > 0:28:00"Who is this lady artist in Hampstead
0:28:00 > 0:28:02"who is painting my flowers?"
0:28:02 > 0:28:04So she too went along,
0:28:04 > 0:28:07and I think they just got talking.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13Constance Spry was the most famous flower decorator of her time.
0:28:13 > 0:28:19She was doing the flowers for very, very rich upper echelons of society.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22She was doing weddings, including royal weddings.
0:28:22 > 0:28:25She was doing their drawing rooms.
0:28:25 > 0:28:26She was doing their parties.
0:28:26 > 0:28:28She was doing debutante balls.
0:28:28 > 0:28:32So she was socially really up there.
0:28:32 > 0:28:37Culminating in doing the flowers for the procession at the coronation.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Constance used to go and stay at Gluck's house in Hampstead
0:28:49 > 0:28:53and Gluck occasionally went to stay at Constance's house,
0:28:53 > 0:28:57where there was her husband, Shav Spry,
0:28:57 > 0:29:00and various other members of the household.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03They were lovers. Of course they were lovers, yes.
0:29:03 > 0:29:08- How do you know?- Because Gluck kept diaries, and put an asterisk.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11It didn't take me long to work it out -
0:29:11 > 0:29:14an asterisk for when she... for sex, you know.
0:29:16 > 0:29:21They went on holiday to Tunisia every summer.
0:29:24 > 0:29:27They were mixing with a very exciting group -
0:29:27 > 0:29:29writers, painters, photographers.
0:29:29 > 0:29:31Cecil Beaton was always around.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33He was a great friend of Constance Spry's,
0:29:33 > 0:29:34a great admirer of hers.
0:29:36 > 0:29:38Did Constance Spry's husband know about Gluck?
0:29:38 > 0:29:40Oh, yes, I'm sure he must have known about her.
0:29:40 > 0:29:42He didn't like Gluck.
0:29:42 > 0:29:44He thought she was a rather strange and difficult woman.
0:29:44 > 0:29:47But he had enough secrets going of his own.
0:29:47 > 0:29:50He wasn't going to spill the beans to anybody,
0:29:50 > 0:29:55because Constance Spry, actually, wasn't Mrs Spry at all.
0:29:55 > 0:29:59She was living in sin with Shav, who she wasn't married to.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01And if this had ever come out,
0:30:01 > 0:30:03she would have been dropped, just like that.
0:30:07 > 0:30:12Gluck's painting, and life, really flourished under Constance,
0:30:12 > 0:30:16and the flower paintings that Gluck did were hugely successful.
0:30:18 > 0:30:20Her paintings were displayed
0:30:20 > 0:30:24on special frames that she made out of bleached sycamore,
0:30:24 > 0:30:26and they heightened the sense of drama of these paintings.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29And, of course, commissions poured in.
0:30:38 > 0:30:43Gluck's painting is so beautifully perfect and so elegant.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47You've got the absolute perfect moment in every bloom
0:30:47 > 0:30:49captured in those paintings.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54And it would take a long time to paint, so the flowers would change,
0:30:54 > 0:30:55the flowers would open,
0:30:55 > 0:30:58they'd probably go over a little bit in the heat.
0:30:58 > 0:31:00So, it had to be a constant replacement
0:31:00 > 0:31:04of exactly the same display so that Gluck could keep working on it.
0:31:05 > 0:31:09It was the time, also, of the interior design.
0:31:09 > 0:31:13And Gluck would paint these pictures of Constance's flower arrangements,
0:31:13 > 0:31:15of lilies and white flowers.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18And they would be the sole picture in posh drawing rooms.
0:31:20 > 0:31:23This is a really beautiful example.
0:31:23 > 0:31:26I love the way that in it, she's picked out the individual petals,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29to give it this sort of almost 3D quality.
0:31:31 > 0:31:34You could just picture this being the centrepiece of a room,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37with that very sort of sculptural quality to the frame.
0:31:39 > 0:31:42White was very fashionable in the early '30s.
0:31:42 > 0:31:46And all the interior decorators that Constance worked with
0:31:46 > 0:31:47were painting their interiors white.
0:31:47 > 0:31:52And so, she took white flowers and made them
0:31:52 > 0:31:56the essential part of completed decor in a room.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Gluck's relationship with Constance was truly rewarding,
0:32:13 > 0:32:15and it lasted for four years,
0:32:15 > 0:32:19but then her whole life was turned upside down
0:32:19 > 0:32:23when she met a woman called Nesta Obermer.
0:32:27 > 0:32:32Something happened at a dinner party, it was in May 1935.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Gluck fell in love with Nesta.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38Nesta is the absolute love of Gluck's life.
0:32:38 > 0:32:43Gluck's life thereafter is always altered.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47She was larger than life.
0:32:47 > 0:32:48She was immensely rich,
0:32:48 > 0:32:52she was married for convenience to some incredibly wealthy old man.
0:32:52 > 0:32:55She's quite a party girl.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57She's very charming.
0:32:57 > 0:32:59She has a go at everything, you know -
0:32:59 > 0:33:01Nesta got her pilot's licence.
0:33:01 > 0:33:02Nesta can ski.
0:33:02 > 0:33:04Nesta can dance.
0:33:04 > 0:33:05She travels the world.
0:33:05 > 0:33:08She climbed mountains, she drove fast cars.
0:33:08 > 0:33:11I mean, she was a very exciting person for Gluck to have met.
0:33:16 > 0:33:18She and Nesta went to the opera,
0:33:18 > 0:33:21they went to Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne.
0:33:25 > 0:33:28And Gluck felt that the intensity of the music fused them into one.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32Coup de foudre, it was a real...
0:33:32 > 0:33:35- It was a coup de foudre? - It was the actual thing, yes.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40Even given the extravagance of the 1930s,
0:33:40 > 0:33:42it's a humdinger of a love affair.
0:33:44 > 0:33:46"My own darling wife...
0:33:47 > 0:33:50"I have just driven back in a sudden,
0:33:50 > 0:33:53"almost tropical downpour in keeping with my feelings at leaving you.
0:33:53 > 0:33:57"I felt so much, I could hardly be said to feel at all.
0:33:57 > 0:34:03"Almost numb, and yet every nerve ready to jump into sudden life.
0:34:03 > 0:34:07"I made straight for the studio and have, more or less, succeeded."
0:34:18 > 0:34:20Well, it is a statement.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23It is a statement, and it works as a statement.
0:34:23 > 0:34:27Nesta was incredibly important in Gluck's life.
0:34:27 > 0:34:31So this is a declaration of her love for Nesta.
0:34:31 > 0:34:33And, at the time, that would have been
0:34:33 > 0:34:37quite a revolutionary thing, to put it onto canvas
0:34:37 > 0:34:39and to show the world.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41It is just wonderful.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43And look how noble Nesta is.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46Contrition, almost. I mean, it's fantastic.
0:34:46 > 0:34:48And the golden hair, everything about her is...
0:34:48 > 0:34:50This is the two of them,
0:34:50 > 0:34:53you know, it's like the Ride of the Valkyries, going out into the world
0:34:53 > 0:34:56and conquering. It's strangely Soviet, isn't it?
0:34:56 > 0:34:58You know, those wonderful posters of remarkably strong women
0:34:58 > 0:35:01running munitions factories entirely on their own,
0:35:01 > 0:35:03it has a sort of a feel of it like that.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06This painting is completely extraordinary,
0:35:06 > 0:35:08and when I saw the real painting,
0:35:08 > 0:35:11I think what really struck me was the light in Nesta's eye.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15And it's almost biblical, this white, shining light.
0:35:15 > 0:35:17It's strong. It's two women together.
0:35:17 > 0:35:19It's not a particularly tender painting, I don't think.
0:35:25 > 0:35:27She was making a statement,
0:35:27 > 0:35:30by this painting, in being...out.
0:35:30 > 0:35:34And that was... There might be lots of other lesbians who were
0:35:34 > 0:35:38out and about, but didn't visibly demonstrate that.
0:35:39 > 0:35:42Well, it is very striking, obviously.
0:35:42 > 0:35:45You know, anybody seeing that who had actually read
0:35:45 > 0:35:48The Well Of Loneliness would, I'm sure, have thought,
0:35:48 > 0:35:51"Oh, yes. Mm, yeah, that's what they look like."
0:35:52 > 0:35:55Primarily, her statement is a feminist statement,
0:35:55 > 0:35:58of saying, "I demand my rights," you know, "to a free life,"
0:35:58 > 0:36:02and, you know, without the restrictions imposed upon women,
0:36:02 > 0:36:06which was a very defiant statement, a very bold thing to do.
0:36:09 > 0:36:12It is a defiant picture.
0:36:12 > 0:36:14She's looking very mannish,
0:36:14 > 0:36:17and she liked to work in her studio with that picture
0:36:17 > 0:36:19propped in front of her,
0:36:19 > 0:36:22and she liked the discomfort it caused to people.
0:36:22 > 0:36:26It would hang on the walls at a London gallery,
0:36:26 > 0:36:29but quite the intensity of what was going on underneath,
0:36:29 > 0:36:33I don't think could ever be said overtly.
0:36:33 > 0:36:37I mean, the Queen came to her exhibitions.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46It was all there to be read, if people wanted to read it.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51What you do have to say about her,
0:36:51 > 0:36:54the thing that she had on her side, is that she had money.
0:36:54 > 0:36:56And I think, when you are brought up with money,
0:36:56 > 0:36:59it gives you a kind of confidence, that you have a place in the world,
0:36:59 > 0:37:01that you're allowed to stand there.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03And what I always think when I think about Gluck
0:37:03 > 0:37:06is I think about all the women who would've had exactly the same
0:37:06 > 0:37:08feelings as she did, but who didn't have money.
0:37:21 > 0:37:24Well, class and the amount of money you had
0:37:24 > 0:37:27obviously made a huge difference to whether you could get away with
0:37:27 > 0:37:29relationships with other women.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31If you were an ordinary kind of person,
0:37:31 > 0:37:34women just didn't earn enough to support themselves independently.
0:37:34 > 0:37:38How could they live their lives with another woman?
0:37:38 > 0:37:43Well, many women managed to do that by passing as men,
0:37:43 > 0:37:47by cross-dressing or, as it was known in that period, masquerading.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51My favourite is always William Holton.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53SHE LAUGHS
0:37:53 > 0:37:561929, Holton, who worked in a lot of tough jobs,
0:37:56 > 0:37:59he was a navvy, you know, moving heavy goods and so on.
0:37:59 > 0:38:03So he really had done that hard, masculine work
0:38:03 > 0:38:04over at least 20 years.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08But it was only when he was in his forties
0:38:08 > 0:38:11that he caught some kind of typhoid fever,
0:38:11 > 0:38:15so he was taken off to a workhouse hospital and it was only then
0:38:15 > 0:38:17that he was discovered to have the body of a woman.
0:38:19 > 0:38:22And he had a wife and a baby,
0:38:22 > 0:38:25and the wife swore that as far as she knew,
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Holton was the father of that baby, which was her second child.
0:38:29 > 0:38:33So, a mystery and a puzzle to the readers of the newspapers.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38This was a way in which women could live with another woman
0:38:38 > 0:38:40and get away with it.
0:38:40 > 0:38:42And indeed, they did get away with it.
0:38:47 > 0:38:49At all moments in this picture,
0:38:49 > 0:38:52Gluck's chin is lower, her eyesight is lower,
0:38:52 > 0:38:54her gaze, everything.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56Nesta was American,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00and I always think Americans somehow have the slight edge on the British
0:39:00 > 0:39:03in terms of seeming publicly more confident.
0:39:03 > 0:39:05And I suspect Nesta was the one in charge.
0:39:05 > 0:39:07And you can see it in the painting.
0:39:07 > 0:39:09You can see Nesta is the one that Gluck is looking to
0:39:09 > 0:39:11to lead them both into the light.
0:39:19 > 0:39:21After Gluck had met Nesta,
0:39:21 > 0:39:25she feels that this is really her life beginning.
0:39:27 > 0:39:31And Gluck's so sure of this sense of arrival that she has,
0:39:31 > 0:39:33that she burns her past.
0:39:35 > 0:39:39She's burning photographs, letters,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43she said she even burned some of her old canvases.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48"Darling, isn't the world exciting?
0:39:48 > 0:39:51"I do not feel I even became conscious and began to live
0:39:51 > 0:39:54"until I met you, and claimed you.
0:39:54 > 0:39:57"I've never said or written eternity before,
0:39:57 > 0:39:59"I was always looking for you.
0:39:59 > 0:40:03"Always hoping against hope for you."
0:40:06 > 0:40:09Poor old Constance was kind of
0:40:09 > 0:40:13left in the wake, and rather forgotten.
0:40:14 > 0:40:20Gluck's entry in her diary is "C for the night, BH,
0:40:20 > 0:40:23"talked and said no more..." asterisk.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25So C is Constance,
0:40:25 > 0:40:30BH is Bolton house, which was Gluck's Hampstead house.
0:40:30 > 0:40:33And the asterisk is the asterisk!
0:40:33 > 0:40:37Constance just kind of walked away from it,
0:40:37 > 0:40:39and almost pretended it hadn't happened.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42From that day on, almost literally,
0:40:42 > 0:40:45they never spoke to each other again.
0:40:46 > 0:40:49She really did feel that this was it.
0:40:49 > 0:40:52She'd found her other half, if you like.
0:40:52 > 0:40:54That's what that portrait shows.
0:40:54 > 0:40:55The merging together.
0:40:55 > 0:40:58Gluck called it their marriage picture.
0:40:58 > 0:41:02In fact, Gluck wrote in a love letter to Nesta,
0:41:02 > 0:41:03"Now it is out,
0:41:03 > 0:41:06"and to the rest of the world I say, beware, beware,
0:41:06 > 0:41:08"we are not to be trifled with."
0:41:08 > 0:41:11Did you know that she had an affair with Nesta?
0:41:11 > 0:41:13No.
0:41:13 > 0:41:15We didn't see her around.
0:41:15 > 0:41:18She moved in a completely different circle.
0:41:18 > 0:41:21I don't think she brought her lovers to your parent's house?
0:41:21 > 0:41:23No!
0:41:23 > 0:41:25She wouldn't have done that.
0:41:25 > 0:41:28My father would have put his foot down and said, "No."
0:41:29 > 0:41:31Very different from today.
0:41:42 > 0:41:43Nesta's family home was in Sussex,
0:41:43 > 0:41:47and there was a big lake with a punt on it, and you can just see,
0:41:47 > 0:41:50in the darkness, the two women sitting together.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52And this one is just called The Punt
0:41:52 > 0:41:54and you can barely make out it's two women.
0:41:58 > 0:42:00Yes, there they are on the punt.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03That must be the lake in Plumpton.
0:42:03 > 0:42:06There were those idyllic days.
0:42:06 > 0:42:10They went skating together, they'd go to Cornwall together.
0:42:10 > 0:42:12They'd have picnics.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16Gluck painted Nesta's mother.
0:42:17 > 0:42:21It was a terrific point in her life, where she felt,
0:42:21 > 0:42:23this is how I'm going to be from now on.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27It lasted six years.
0:42:31 > 0:42:34The problem was that words like "forever", and "only you",
0:42:34 > 0:42:36need a context.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39And as time goes on, the question is asked,
0:42:39 > 0:42:42what are we doing in this relationship?
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Where are we going? How is it going to be?
0:42:44 > 0:42:46And when you see the letters,
0:42:46 > 0:42:49there's a feeling, is this going to last?
0:42:52 > 0:42:56"Dearest, most treasured heart, my own most precious wife.
0:42:56 > 0:42:59"You fill my heart, my mind, my eyes,
0:42:59 > 0:43:01"you are my life and I worship you.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03You start reading them and they're quite moving.
0:43:03 > 0:43:05In the end, they're quite repetitive,
0:43:05 > 0:43:07because it's the same message.
0:43:07 > 0:43:09She wants more and more of Nesta.
0:43:09 > 0:43:12And Nesta's not prepared to give that.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17Nesta's got a husband, who she doesn't want to upset,
0:43:17 > 0:43:19who was quite a moneybag.
0:43:19 > 0:43:23It would mean that Nesta would have to give up her husband,
0:43:23 > 0:43:25and her jet set life.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30Nesta could fit into a high society conventional life with her husband,
0:43:30 > 0:43:34and she's also operating in a society where it's overlooked
0:43:34 > 0:43:36if she has a relationship with another woman.
0:43:36 > 0:43:40But to leave your husband to go and live with another woman,
0:43:40 > 0:43:42which is what Gluck wanted,
0:43:42 > 0:43:44she obviously wasn't prepared to pay that price.
0:43:44 > 0:43:49Nesta's reluctance to acknowledge her openly
0:43:49 > 0:43:52was a real obstacle to perfect togetherness.
0:43:52 > 0:43:54There was no precedent.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56There was no context for it.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58She wasn't a man.
0:43:58 > 0:43:59Nesta was married.
0:43:59 > 0:44:02How were they going to live together? Where?
0:44:02 > 0:44:04Society wouldn't condone it.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06Their families didn't condone it.
0:44:08 > 0:44:13And so, ultimately, you're conscious of the lawmakers who say
0:44:13 > 0:44:17silence is best, that you can't live like this,
0:44:17 > 0:44:20that marriage is between a man and a woman.
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Her father saying how much it pains him, her outre clobber.
0:44:25 > 0:44:30So they can't create Gluck's romantic ideal
0:44:30 > 0:44:32on which she's staked everything.
0:44:34 > 0:44:36She gets depressed.
0:44:36 > 0:44:37And she does break down.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44This portrait is painted just when one of
0:44:44 > 0:44:47her most significant relationships is ending.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50That's the relationship with Nesta Obermer.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52And I think you can see a note of sort of sadness
0:44:52 > 0:44:55in this crease between the eyes.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59It's quite a sort of weary look to the face.
0:44:59 > 0:45:03But it's still that jutting chin that just seems so defiant.
0:45:07 > 0:45:10I suppose it just feels quite challenging.
0:45:10 > 0:45:12It's so direct and challenging.
0:45:12 > 0:45:14I don't know, there is a bit of sadness in there.
0:45:14 > 0:45:16- There's pain, yeah. - Definitely pain in the eyes.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Also a kind of sense of, you know, being proud.
0:45:19 > 0:45:21Still defiance - this is who I am.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24I think it's, like, you've been dumped,
0:45:24 > 0:45:29but you're still trying to hold on to a sense of self and defiance.
0:45:29 > 0:45:31Almost keeping the head above the water,
0:45:31 > 0:45:33quite literally, with the upturned...
0:45:33 > 0:45:35The chin, yeah.
0:45:36 > 0:45:37If Gluck were around today,
0:45:37 > 0:45:40would she have identified as transgender?
0:45:40 > 0:45:41Would she have transitioned?
0:45:41 > 0:45:44- Who knows?- It's hard to know, isn't it?
0:45:44 > 0:45:47It's hard to know, because some people don't have to physically,
0:45:47 > 0:45:49- even nowadays, transition. - Not medically.
0:45:49 > 0:45:53I would put my vote in for the genderqueer.
0:45:53 > 0:45:55- I would say.- Non-binary.
0:45:55 > 0:45:56- On the spectrum.- Yes.- Yeah.
0:45:57 > 0:45:59It's very difficult, isn't it,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02to apply terms that we use today to the past?
0:46:02 > 0:46:05But it would seem perfectly likely that she would be,
0:46:05 > 0:46:09in today's terminology, a trans man.
0:46:09 > 0:46:11I think she would have hated all that, all that...
0:46:11 > 0:46:14all that language.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19I think she saw herself as above gender.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21She didn't want to be...
0:46:21 > 0:46:23She didn't want a label.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25She didn't even want a name, particularly.
0:46:25 > 0:46:28Do you know? Because she didn't want to be claimed.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33When I first saw that portrait in the National Portrait Gallery,
0:46:33 > 0:46:35I thought that Gluck looked enraged.
0:46:35 > 0:46:37And I remember thinking, it's very rare,
0:46:37 > 0:46:40when you look through the history of women painting themselves,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42to depict themselves thus.
0:46:42 > 0:46:44And then, the more I looked at it, I thought, actually,
0:46:44 > 0:46:49she's not enraged, she actually looks incredibly distressed.
0:46:49 > 0:46:52It's a very, very powerful self portrait of a woman.
0:46:53 > 0:46:59She had, I think, been bereaved, and lost her sense of direction.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02She couldn't be more than the times she lived in.
0:47:04 > 0:47:07It becomes clear to Gluck that this relationship with Nesta
0:47:07 > 0:47:10is not going to work out.
0:47:10 > 0:47:12And almost by way of consolation,
0:47:12 > 0:47:16she turns to another woman called Edith Heald.
0:47:25 > 0:47:29Edith Heald was a journalist, and she lived with her sister, Nora,
0:47:29 > 0:47:32who was the editor of The Lady magazine,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35and they lived together in a house in Sussex.
0:47:37 > 0:47:42They are well connected - Edith had been the last lover of Yeats.
0:47:44 > 0:47:48They're intellectual, they're interested in her.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51And they invite her to go and live with them.
0:47:52 > 0:47:57Gluck starts a relationship with Edith, Nora thinks it's appalling.
0:47:57 > 0:48:00And Nora moves out.
0:48:01 > 0:48:07After the war, Gluck chooses a much quieter, rural existence.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10It's a different world from the world that Gluck occupied
0:48:10 > 0:48:12in Bond Street in the 1920s and '30s.
0:48:12 > 0:48:16It certainly ended an era, the Second World War.
0:48:16 > 0:48:19And 1945, yes, there was a Labour administration,
0:48:19 > 0:48:23there was a new definition of what society would be like.
0:48:23 > 0:48:29The Labour Party's great victory shows that the country is ready
0:48:29 > 0:48:33for a new policy to face new world conditions.
0:48:34 > 0:48:36The welfare state, you know.
0:48:36 > 0:48:39It's not going to be Nesta's scene, is it?
0:48:39 > 0:48:41Not Nesta's scene at all. No.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43She was off to Hawaii.
0:48:43 > 0:48:49# I wonder who's kissing her now
0:48:49 > 0:48:51# I wonder who's kissing her now
0:48:51 > 0:48:53# I wonder... #
0:48:53 > 0:48:58It's the end of, certainly, those wonderful white interiors,
0:48:58 > 0:49:01and flower paintings for the walls of the rich.
0:49:03 > 0:49:06That whole country house lifestyle has gone,
0:49:06 > 0:49:08lots of people have to sell their country houses,
0:49:08 > 0:49:12because they've got to pay more tax. It's a different world.
0:49:12 > 0:49:15It's also a time where her sort of art was no longer fashionable.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20We've got different sorts of art.
0:49:20 > 0:49:24It's much more working class, artistic expression,
0:49:24 > 0:49:27kitchen sink dramas, the angry young men.
0:49:27 > 0:49:29Don't let the bastards grind you down,
0:49:29 > 0:49:31that's one thing I've learned.
0:49:34 > 0:49:38She stops painting in any meaningful or directional way.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41She is too much of a professional to stop completely.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44But she takes forever over one picture.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49# Like a circle in a spiral
0:49:49 > 0:49:52- # Like a wheel within a wheel...- #
0:49:53 > 0:49:56Gluck goes through a very dark phase where she doesn't paint very much,
0:49:56 > 0:49:58and becomes completely obsessive
0:49:58 > 0:50:01about trying to change the quality of paints.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06She spends her time dithering about writing letters about paint
0:50:06 > 0:50:09standards, because that's a thing to focus on, isn't it?
0:50:09 > 0:50:12That's something you can, kind of, cope with.
0:50:12 > 0:50:13It's not emotional.
0:50:13 > 0:50:16It's not emotional at all to look at the consistency of paint,
0:50:16 > 0:50:19literally, she is watching paint dry, because she's so miserable.
0:50:19 > 0:50:21I think she had a broken heart for the rest of her life.
0:50:21 > 0:50:24Because we don't get the creativity.
0:50:24 > 0:50:28# Like the circles that you find
0:50:28 > 0:50:34# In the windmills of your mind. #
0:50:38 > 0:50:43In 1960, she'd advertised, in a shop window in the high street,
0:50:43 > 0:50:45for someone to do her secretarial work.
0:50:45 > 0:50:48She employed me for the next, God knows how long, 14 years?
0:50:49 > 0:50:54- Where was your office? - Up in the roof, the left-hand one.
0:50:54 > 0:50:56Up there.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58That's what she looked like at the time.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00Very short hair, and...
0:51:03 > 0:51:04But she always wore trousers.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08Yes, she looked like a male, really.
0:51:12 > 0:51:16She was a very strong woman, very lovely to talk to.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Because you could get...
0:51:18 > 0:51:21You know, you had proper conversations with her.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23She didn't waffle about.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26If she believed in something, she fought for it.
0:51:26 > 0:51:31You know, her attitude towards life, I admired.
0:51:31 > 0:51:36Very much. And so, yes, I named one of my daughters after her.
0:51:43 > 0:51:4630 years goes by without her having an exhibition.
0:51:46 > 0:51:48And she's all but forgotten.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54It was 30 years without those feelings of being in love.
0:51:54 > 0:52:02The feelings that she found in herself, for Nesta, were lost.
0:52:04 > 0:52:08She'd buried herself in the country, really.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11And I think she was in her 70s when she went into the Fine Art Society
0:52:11 > 0:52:15and said, "It's 30 years since I had my last exhibition,
0:52:15 > 0:52:17"don't you think it's time I had another?"
0:52:23 > 0:52:26This amazing character comes in through the door,
0:52:26 > 0:52:29extremely handsome, wearing a deerstalker hat,
0:52:29 > 0:52:32a Sherlock Holmes cloak, and said,
0:52:32 > 0:52:36"I last showed here in '37, is there any chance of another exhibition?"
0:52:37 > 0:52:41Gluck, to say the least of it, was a brilliant professional.
0:52:41 > 0:52:44Everybody who was anybody knew that the show was coming on.
0:52:44 > 0:52:47It was massively popular.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51You know, seeing this visitors' book, it reads like a film premiere.
0:52:52 > 0:52:54It was a smash hit.
0:52:55 > 0:52:57Smash hit.
0:52:58 > 0:53:05One of the guests at Gluck's 1973 exhibition was Katharine Hepburn.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08There she is, signing it and she gives us her address,
0:53:08 > 0:53:11Hartford, Connecticut.
0:53:11 > 0:53:14Of course, we recognised who it was when she came in, asking,
0:53:14 > 0:53:16"Where is the Gluck exhibition?"
0:53:16 > 0:53:18So we just pointed out where the Gluck exhibition was,
0:53:18 > 0:53:23and then they chatted like two old friends for the next hour.
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Katharine Hepburn would have known of Gluck's work,
0:53:26 > 0:53:27and known of her life.
0:53:27 > 0:53:33And, of course, her love life wasn't clear, and is only clearer now.
0:53:34 > 0:53:36There's an alliance and an allegiance,
0:53:36 > 0:53:40and she would be there because she knew of Gluck's life and her work.
0:53:44 > 0:53:49There was still the same buzz of people, she got very good reviews.
0:53:49 > 0:53:52She hadn't finished as an artist.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55You know, one of the things she wrote was,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59"I really do want to do some good and lovely work before I die."
0:54:00 > 0:54:04Five years after the last exhibition, she died.
0:54:08 > 0:54:11She obviously knows that she's on her way out,
0:54:11 > 0:54:15but she did wonderful things with her life.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19You look at that face, my gosh!
0:54:22 > 0:54:26The directors of the Fine Art Society asked Nesta
0:54:26 > 0:54:29if there was anything of Gluck's she wanted, and she said,
0:54:29 > 0:54:34"Oh, a few of her fine haired brushes," you know.
0:54:34 > 0:54:38So she didn't lose her knowledge of Gluck, or her love of Gluck,
0:54:38 > 0:54:42I don't think. It's just, they didn't find a way.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00So, it's in 1977, which is the year before Gluck died,
0:55:00 > 0:55:04she decided to donate to Brighton Museum, which is her local museum,
0:55:04 > 0:55:07a collection of objects - it included these dresses,
0:55:07 > 0:55:10which was really what you don't expect from Gluck.
0:55:11 > 0:55:14We'd imagine that we might find suits, you know,
0:55:14 > 0:55:18ideally, the fedora hat, perhaps some men's lace-up shoes.
0:55:18 > 0:55:21And actually, what we found was a collection of flowery dresses.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26Through documentary evidence, and actually through looking at images,
0:55:26 > 0:55:28we've come to the idea that, actually,
0:55:28 > 0:55:30a lot of them were worn by her girlfriends.
0:55:30 > 0:55:32And they're really a memorial to her life.
0:55:33 > 0:55:38So we've sort of sectioned these off, really, as being worn by Edith,
0:55:38 > 0:55:41who was Gluck's girlfriend in the last 30 years.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44The other dresses, we think, it's probably Nesta.
0:55:44 > 0:55:46They date from the '30s,
0:55:46 > 0:55:49the second half of the '30s, which is when Gluck was with Nesta.
0:55:49 > 0:55:55It's deeply meaningful that the items Gluck chose to preserve
0:55:55 > 0:55:59are the items that were worn by the women she loved.
0:55:59 > 0:56:03And it would be interesting to see the sort of
0:56:03 > 0:56:07tailored menswear she wore, but this is more touching.
0:56:09 > 0:56:12I'm sure that's why Gluck decided to leave these objects,
0:56:12 > 0:56:15because it told a story about her life.
0:56:19 > 0:56:24In 1982, when Virago was republishing Radclyffe Hall's
0:56:24 > 0:56:28Well Of Loneliness, the book that was banned in 1928,
0:56:28 > 0:56:31they used the YouWe picture.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35They thought that it was a double profile of Gluck.
0:56:35 > 0:56:40That it was both her, and her alter ego, looking out into the future.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43They didn't realise that the other half of it was Nesta.
0:56:43 > 0:56:47Because the story wasn't revealed at that time.
0:56:47 > 0:56:51I think, ultimately, it's a story of the YouWe picture.
0:56:51 > 0:56:56Do you know, I think, in a way, all this is coded into that picture.
0:56:58 > 0:57:01I think that painting will last.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07And even now, even this year,
0:57:07 > 0:57:10there's been another showing of her work.
0:57:12 > 0:57:14And people have thought that the work looks as fresh
0:57:14 > 0:57:16as the day she painted it.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22Never take away from here the flair and skill she had.
0:57:22 > 0:57:25Whatever sort of difficult person she was,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29that is her bequest to the world.
0:57:29 > 0:57:33And her paintings wouldn't attract the people they do to this day
0:57:33 > 0:57:35if that were not the case.
0:57:35 > 0:57:39They're collected by people in the pop world.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42- It's fascinating.- And if she hadn't spent so long arguing with
0:57:42 > 0:57:45- everybody else, she'd have painted a lot more!- Yes.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49I think she was ahead of her time.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51She wouldn't have any trouble now, would she?
0:57:51 > 0:57:54If she lived now, doing what she does, she'd be fine.
0:57:54 > 0:57:56I think she was authentic.
0:57:56 > 0:57:58I think she was true.
0:57:58 > 0:58:03She couldn't be anything else other than what she was.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06I think it's these images, these are the legacy,
0:58:06 > 0:58:08because they look so modern.
0:58:08 > 0:58:10They look gender neutral.
0:58:10 > 0:58:13They look incredibly stylish to contemporary eyes.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15It's a fashionable look right now.
0:58:22 > 0:58:27Extraordinary, really, when you think, you know, 90 years on,
0:58:27 > 0:58:32we still look at Gluck and she still looks compelling and radical,
0:58:32 > 0:58:33and incredibly modern.
0:58:36 > 0:58:39# I will follow him
0:58:39 > 0:58:43# Follow him wherever he may go
0:58:44 > 0:58:48# There isn't an ocean too deep
0:58:48 > 0:58:54# A mountain so high it can keep, keep me away
0:58:55 > 0:58:59# Away from my love
0:58:59 > 0:59:02# I love him, I love him, I love him
0:59:02 > 0:59:06# And where he goes I'll follow, I'll follow, I'll follow
0:59:06 > 0:59:10# He'll always be my true love, my true love, my true love
0:59:10 > 0:59:13# From now until forever, forever, forever... #