Grace Inez Crawford
Encyclopedia
Grace Inez Crawford was a singer, actress, costume designer, translator of plays, and author of several books.
, Ford Maddox Ford, Violet Hunt
, William Butler Yeats
, and D.H. Lawrence.
Crawford received training in voice, ballet, piano, and music theory, as well as French, German and Italian. She met her future husband, artist Claud Lovat Fraser
, during a fitting for a faun costume for Hugo Rumbold
's adaptation of L'Apres-midi d'un Faune. After a brief courtship, they were married February 6, 1917. During the next four years, until Fraser's death in 1921, the two worked jointly on a number of theatre projects, including La Serva Padrona
and 'The Liar' (both of which Crawford translated), and Fraser's long-running production of The Beggar's Opera
. Their daughter, Helen Catherine Adeline Lovat Fraser, was born in 1918.
After Fraser's death, Crawford promoted and protected his artistic legacy through exhibitions and publications. She continued her own work in singing and in costume design, working with prominent music and theatre figures of the time, including composer Arthur Bliss
, Serge Diaghileff, and Nigel Playfair
. Tamara Karsavina
, the Russian ballerina, was a lifelong friend.
Crawford also worked in other design-related businesses. In 1923 she formed a firm with Norman Wilkinson
and a Mr. Trevelean that specialized in scenery and dress for the theatre, interior decoration for the home, hand printed fabrics, and "modern" clothing. She was editor of the magazine Art and Industry, worked in the design departments of Schweppes and Venesta Limited, and served for a time on the Research and Industrial Design Advisory Departments of Pritchard, Wood & Partners, Ltd.
on February 6, 1917. Their daughter, Helen Catherine Adeline Lovat Fraser, was born in 1918.
Biography
She was born in Paris in 1889, daughter of Theron Clark Crawford, an American entrepreneur, and a highly trained amateur pianist. Her father's professional projects (including work with Buffalo Bill Cody's "Wild West Show") caused the family to reside in various European and American cities, but England was considered home. Crawford's circle of acquaintances in London included Ezra PoundEzra Pound
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an American expatriate poet and critic and a major figure in the early modernist movement in poetry...
, Ford Maddox Ford, Violet Hunt
Violet Hunt
Isobel Violet Hunt was a British author and literary hostess. Her father was the artist Alfred William Hunt, her mother the novelist and translator Margaret Raine Hunt. Her younger sister Venetia married the designer William Arthur Smith Benson .-Biography:Hunt was born in Durham; the family moved...
, William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats was an Irish poet and playwright, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years he served as an Irish Senator for two terms...
, and D.H. Lawrence.
Crawford received training in voice, ballet, piano, and music theory, as well as French, German and Italian. She met her future husband, artist Claud Lovat Fraser
Claud Lovat Fraser
Claud Lovat Fraser was an English Artist, designer and author.Claud Lovat Fraser was a member of a distinguished old family in which it was traditional to include the name Lovat in the eldest son's name. For much of his life he was know simply by that name...
, during a fitting for a faun costume for Hugo Rumbold
Hugo Rumbold
Hugo Cecil Levinge Rumbold was a British theatrical scenery and costume designer.-Life and career:Rumbold was the son of Sir Horace Rumbold, eighth baronet of Woodhall , and his second wife, Louisa Anne , daughter of Thomas Russell Crampton...
's adaptation of L'Apres-midi d'un Faune. After a brief courtship, they were married February 6, 1917. During the next four years, until Fraser's death in 1921, the two worked jointly on a number of theatre projects, including La Serva Padrona
La serva padrona
La serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...
and 'The Liar' (both of which Crawford translated), and Fraser's long-running production of The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay with music arranged by Johann Christoph Pepusch. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today...
. Their daughter, Helen Catherine Adeline Lovat Fraser, was born in 1918.
After Fraser's death, Crawford promoted and protected his artistic legacy through exhibitions and publications. She continued her own work in singing and in costume design, working with prominent music and theatre figures of the time, including composer Arthur Bliss
Arthur Bliss
Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss, CH, KCVO was an English composer and conductor.Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army...
, Serge Diaghileff, and Nigel Playfair
Nigel Playfair
Sir Nigel Playfair was the actor-manager of the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London, in the 1920s. He studied at University College, Oxford....
. Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Karsavina
Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was a famous Russian ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was most noted as a Principal Artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev...
, the Russian ballerina, was a lifelong friend.
Crawford also worked in other design-related businesses. In 1923 she formed a firm with Norman Wilkinson
Norman Wilkinson
Norman Wilkinson:* Norman Wilkinson * Norman Wilkinson * Norman Wilkinson...
and a Mr. Trevelean that specialized in scenery and dress for the theatre, interior decoration for the home, hand printed fabrics, and "modern" clothing. She was editor of the magazine Art and Industry, worked in the design departments of Schweppes and Venesta Limited, and served for a time on the Research and Industrial Design Advisory Departments of Pritchard, Wood & Partners, Ltd.
Marriage and children
Crawford married artist Claud Lovat FraserClaud Lovat Fraser
Claud Lovat Fraser was an English Artist, designer and author.Claud Lovat Fraser was a member of a distinguished old family in which it was traditional to include the name Lovat in the eldest son's name. For much of his life he was know simply by that name...
on February 6, 1917. Their daughter, Helen Catherine Adeline Lovat Fraser, was born in 1918.
Published works
- Doll Making at Home (1940)
- Textiles in Britain (1948)
- In the Days of My Youth (1970)