Joan Evans (art historian)

Joan Evans was born at Nash Mills, Apsley, Hertfordshire,[3] the daughter of antiquarian and businessman Sir John Evans and his third wife, Maria Millington Lathbury (1856–1944). She was half-sister to Sir Arthur Evans, excavator of Knossos and discoverer of Minoan civilisation. Sir Arthur was forty two years her senior: he caused huge hilarity at an antiquarian conference of learned and erudite gentlemen when he brought in a four-year-old Joan to be "shown off".[2]

Evans was educated privately before going up to St Hugh's College, Oxford to read Archaeology.[4] She graduated in 1916 as M.A.. In 1930 she was awarded a D.Litt..[2]

The Royal Institution of Great Britain's records suggest that Evans was the first woman to give a Friday Evening Discourse at the Institution: this was on 8 June 1923, the title being "Jewels of the Renaissance".[5]

In 1950, Evans's book Cluniac Art of the Romanesque Period, which concerned art and sculptures made by the monks of the abbey at Cluny in eastern France,[6] was published by Cambridge University Press.

A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, she published the Society's official history in 1956, and served as its first woman President from 1959–64.[4]

Evans lived at Thousand Acres, Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, from 1939 until her death in 1977 at the age of 84.[2]

• English Jewellery from the Fifth Century A.D. to 1800, London, Methuen, 1921
• Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, particularly in England, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1922
• Anglo Norman Lapidaries, 1924
• Life in Mediaeval France, Oxford University Press, 1925 (Also in French: Civilisation en France au Moyen Age and in Dutch: Leven in de Middeleeuwen).
• St Joan of Orleans: scenes from the 15th century "Mystére de Siége d’Orleans", by Peter Studer, selected and translated by Joan Evans, Clarendon Press, 1926
• The Unconquered Knight: a chronicle of the deeds of Don Pero Nino, Count of Buelna, by his standard bearer, Diaz de Gamez, Translated and selected from El Vitorial by Joan Evans, Routledge, 1928
• Pattern, a Study of Ornament in Western Europe from 1180 to 1900, 2 vols, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931
• Monastic Life at Cluny, 1931; Archon Books, USA, 1968
• English Posies and Posy Rings: catalogue with introduction by Joan Evans, Oxford University Press, 1931
• English Mediaeval Lapidaries, 1933, by Joan Evans and Mary S. Serjeantson (ed.)
• Nature in Design A Study of Naturalism in Decorative Art, from the Bronze Age to the Renaissance, London, Oxford University Press, 1933
• The Palace of Minos: Index of artefacts, vol. 5, compiled by Joan Evans in collaboration with Sir Arthur Evans, Cambridge University Press, 1936
• The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny, Cambridge University Press, 1938
• Joinville’s History of Saint Louis, edited by Joan Evans, Gregynog Press, 1937; Oxford University Press, 1938
• Taste and Temperament. A Brief Study of Psychological Types in their relation to the Visual Arts. Jonathan Cape. 1939.
• Chateaubriand: a Biography, Macmillan, 1939
• Time and Chance: The Story of Arthur Evans and his Forebears, 1943
• The Pursuit of Happiness: The Story of Madame de Sérilly 1762–1799, Longmans, Green and Co., 1946
• The Unselfish Egoist: A life of Joseph Joubert, Longmans, Green and Co., 1947
• Art in Mediaeval France, 987–1498, London, Oxford University Press, 1948
• English Art: 1307–1461, Oxford History of English Art, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1949
• Cluniac Art of the Romanesque Period, Cambridge University Press, 1950; edited, with John Howard Whitehouse
• Style in Ornament, Oxford University Press, 1950
• Dress in Mediaeval France, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1952
• A History of Jewellery, 1100–1870, Faber & Faber, 1953
• John Ruskin, Jonathan Cape 1954: the first biography of Ruskin to be written by a biographer with access to Ruskin’s own diaries
• The Endless Web: A History of John Dickinson & Co. Ltd., 1804–1954, Jonathan Cape, 1955
• History of the Society of Antiquaries, 1956
• John Ruskin: Diaries, 3 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956
• The Lamp of Beauty: Writings on Art by John Ruskin, selected and edited by Joan Evans, Phaidon, Oxford, 1959
• Madame Royale, Museum Press, 1959
• Prelude & Fugue: An Autobiography, London, Museum Press, 1964
• Monastic Architecture in France from the Renaissance to the Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1964
• The Conways: a History of Three Generations, London, Museum Press, 1966
• The Victorians, Cambridge University Press, 1966
• The Flowering of the Middle Ages, edited by Joan Evans, Thames & Hudson, London, 1966; also in German as Blüte des Mittelalters; and in Spanish, trans. Mireia Bofill, 1988
• Monastic Iconography in France from the Renaissance to the Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1970

• Women in the art history field

• Evans, Joan (1964). Prelude & Fugue: An Autobiography. London: Museum Press.
• Garlick, Kenneth (2004). "Evans, Dame Joan (1893–1977)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 8 March 2016. (subscription required)

• Dictionary of Art Historians
• Family History Page
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography