Jacques Groag (5 February 1892 – 28 January 1962) was an architect and an interior designer, originally from

Moravia Moravia ( , also , ; cs, Morava ; german: link=yes, Mähren ; pl, Morawy ; szl, Morawa; la, Moravia) is a historical region in the east of the Czech Republic and one of three historical Czech lands, with Bohemia and Czech Silesia. The me ...

Early life and education

Jacques Groag was born in 1892 in

Olomouc Olomouc (, , ; german: Olmütz; pl, Ołomuniec ; la, Olomucium or ''Iuliomontium'') is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 99,000 inhabitants, and its larger urban zone has a population of about 384,000 inhabitants (2019). Located on th ...

to a well known Jewish family who lived in a

malt house A malt house, malt barn, or maltings, is a building where cereal grain is converted into malt by soaking it in water, allowing it to sprout and then drying it to stop further growth. The malt is used in brewing beer, whisky and in certain food ...

: his notable relatives included his brother Emanuel "Emo" Groag, who was a draftsman and a cartoonist, cousin Heinrich Groag, an acclaimed lawyer who also worked on the domestic and international scene as a pacifist, and nephew Willi Groag, who was known for his humanitarian work during

World War II 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 opposin ...

. Groag studied at the German grammar school in Olomouc, and later graduated from German secondary school in Manchester. After completing military service, he went to

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

to study architecture in 1910 with

Adolf Loos Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos (; 10 December 1870 – 23 August 1933) was an Austrian and Czechoslovak architect, influential European theorist, and a polemicist of modern architecture. He was an inspiration to modernism and a widely-k ...

, a well-known Austrian architect of Moravian origin.

Second World War

Jacques and Jacqueline Groag fled to

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

in 1938; after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, they could not stay long in Prague. Forced to leave, they decided to move to London. Despite all the language difficulties, they mainly focused on their designs, later working for British design factories, including Gordon Russell's.

Career

Jacques Groag began to devote a separate creation in the mid-1920s: he slowly started working independently, and at the same time began collaborating with Viennese architectural offices. He was trained as an architect in Vienna and later on joined Adolf Loos office; he set up his own practice in 1926, and in no time became one of the leading architects in Vienna for working on housing projects, public buildings and private houses. In 1939, after coming to the UK, he joined Gordon Russell's team designing utility furniture. Jacques and Jacqueline Groag's estate is housed at the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in London.

Post-war

Jacques produced designs for exhibitions including

Britain Can Make It ''Britain Can Make It'' was an exhibition of industrial and product design held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1946. It was organised by the ''Council of Industrial Design'', later to become the ''Design Council''. Background Ev ...

in 1946 and the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

in 1951. In 1952, he became a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Artists. He also worked on interior schemes and furniture designs.

Personal life and death

Jacques Groag married textile designer Hilde Pick in 1937, who later changed her name to

Jacqueline Groag Jacqueline Groag ( Hilde Pick; 6 April 1903 – 13 January 1986) was an influential textile designer in Great Britain in the period following World War II. She produced and designed fabrics for leading Parisian fashion houses including Chan ...

. Jacques and Jacqueline first met in the 1930s at a Viennese

masked ball A masquerade ball (or ''bal masqué'') is an event in which many participants attend in costume wearing a mask. (Compare the word "masque"—a formal written and sung court pageant.) Less formal "costume parties" may be a descendant of this tra ...

; they got engaged in 1931, but did not marry until 1937. Jacques was unable to devote himself to architecture until the end of his life, and he experienced depression. He suffered a heart attack on a

London bus Buses have been used as a mode of public transport in London since 1829, when George Shillibeer started operating a horse-drawn ''omnibus'' service from Paddington to the City of London. In the decades since their introduction, the red London b ...

whilst on his way to the opera, and died on 28 January 1962, aged 69.

References

External links

Artwork
by Jacques Groag {{DEFAULTSORT:Groag, Jacques 1892 births 1962 deaths 20th-century Czech architects Czech Jews Jewish architects People from Olomouc