Dame Joan Evans, (22 June 1893 – 14 July 1977) was a British historian of French and English mediaeval art, especially Early Modern and medieval jewellery. Her notable collection was bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Early life and education
Joan Evans was born at Nash Mills, Apsley, Hertfordshire, 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".
Evans was educated privately before going up to St Hugh's College, Oxford to read Archaeology. She graduated in 1916 as M.A.. In 1930 she was awarded a D.Litt..
The Royal Institution of Great Britain's records suggest that Evans was the first ever female at the Institution to deliver, on 8 June 1923, a Friday Evening Discourse which she entitled 'Jewels of the Renaissance'.
In 1950, her book Cluniac Art of the Romanesque Period, which concerned art and sculptures made by the monks of the abbey at Cluny in eastern France, 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.
Evans never married. She lived at Thousand Acres, Wotton under Edge, Gloucestershire, from 1939 until her death in 1977 at the age of 84.
English Jewellery from the Fifth Century A.D. to 1800, London, Methuen, 1921Magical Jewels of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, particularly in England, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1922Anglo Norman Lapidaries, 1924Life in Mediaeval France, Oxford University Press, 1925 (Also in French: Civilisation en France au Moyen Age)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, 1926The 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, 1928Pattern, a Study of Ornament in Western Europe from 1180 to 1900, 2 vols, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1931Monastic Life at Cluny, 1931; Archon Books, USA, 1968English Posies and Posy Rings: catalogue with introduction by Joan Evans, Oxford University Press, 1931English 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, 1933The Palace of Minos: Index of artefacts, vol. 5, compiled by Joan Evans in collaboration with Sir Arthur Evans, Cambridge University Press, 1936The Romanesque Architecture of the Order of Cluny, Cambridge University Press, 1938Joinville’s History of Saint Louis, edited by Joan Evans, Gregynog Press, 1937; Oxford University Press, 1938Taste and Temperament. A Brief Study of Psychological Types in their relation to the Visual Arts. Jonathan Cape. 1939.Chateaubriand: a Biography, Macmillan, 1939Time and Chance: The Story of Arthur Evans and his Forebears, 1943The Pursuit of Happiness: The Story of Madame de Sérilly 1762–1799, Longmans, Green and Co., 1946The Unselfish Egoist: A life of Joseph Joubert, Longmans, Green and Co., 1947Art in Mediaeval France, 987–1498, London, Oxford University Press, 1948English Art: 1307–1461, Oxford History of English Art, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1949Cluniac Art of the Romanesque Period, Cambridge University Press, 1950; edited, with John Howard WhitehouseStyle in Ornament, Oxford University Press, 1950Dress in Mediaeval France, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1952A History of Jewellery, 1100–1870, Faber & Faber, 1953John Ruskin, Jonathan Cape 1954: the first biography of Ruskin to be written by a biographer with access to Ruskin’s own diariesThe Endless Web: A History of John Dickinson & Co. Ltd., 1804–1954, Jonathan Cape, 1955History of the Society of Antiquaries, 1956John Ruskin: Diaries, 3 vols., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1956The Lamp of Beauty: Writings on Art by John Ruskin, selected and edited by Joan Evans, Phaidon, Oxford, 1959Madame Royale, Museum Press, 1959Prelude & Fugue: An Autobiography, London, Museum Press, 1964Monastic Architecture in France from the Renaissance to the Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1964The Conways: a History of Three Generations, London, Museum Press, 1966The Victorians, Cambridge University Press, 1966The 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, 1988Monastic Iconography in France from the Renaissance to the Revolution, Cambridge University Press, 1970