About Jean Playfair Evans

Jean Playfair Evans 1872-1956

JPE was born in Scotland in 1872 hardly lived there. By the age of 21 she had moved around Europe with her mother, sisters and brother, staying a few years in Zurich, Leghorn (Livorno) Florence, Bagni di Lucca and Antignarno.
JPE took art classes in several cities but little formal studies. Her first sketch of a bridge impressed many with its excellent ‘Perspective techniques’ but she replied ‘I have no idea what you are talking about’.
In Italy, they always joined the local English Church and frequented the large English and American communities, but appreciated very much all that Italy offered, especially the museums in Florence and Milan.
On her second stay in Zurich to continue formal studies, JPE spent several holidays with her close school friend Marie Anker, daughter of Albert Anker, a famous Swiss artist, at their village house in Anet. Anker must have influenced and encouraged her tremendously. JPE visited them often and we have a few paintings of the house in Anet (in the drawing room).
JPE returned to Italy and met Ernest Agard Evans on Christmas day 1890 and married in Leghorn on April 3 1893 at the age of 21.
Ernest had set up his company producing directories for the travel business called ‘XX^th Century Health & Pleasure Resorts of Europe’. They criss-crossed Europe to meet clients for the directory. JPE joined Ernest on his business travels, making it possible for her to paint most known resorts in Europe.
Ernest was a keen climber, 8^th person to climb Mont Blanc and 5 registered climbs, once guiding a 13 year old Miss Florence Morse to the top.
They settled first in Dresden in 1895 and moved to 3 Boulevard de Grancy in Lausanne in 1899, because there was more interest in tourism, resorts and Swiss schools.
When Ernest died in 1924, JPE became a businesswoman and took over the running of the company with Archie who was still at Cambridge.
JPE had two sons, Hellier who sadly died at the close of the war in Tekrit, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Archie, my father, who finished Cambridge and went to work for the ILO in Geneva, New York, Canada and back to Geneva.
JPE took her niece Dawn under her charge, daughter of her brother Archie, who had emigrated to India. Dawn was brought up in Lausanne and was a constant companion.
JPE loved life and loved to help in the midst of the sadness in her family. They partied with the English and American community, but during the wars, their lifestyle changed. World War One saw them move to England for a short while, but they kept Lausanne. In 1915, JPE was asked to work in the censor’s office for correspondence in German, French and Norwegian. But on their return to Lausanne, they devoted themselves to the British troops interned in Chateaux d’Oex and Ernst grew vegetables for the soldiers.
When the Second World War came, JPE travelled with Archie’s young family to England via France, Spain and Portugal. The situation did not stop her from painting resort towns on the way, Estoril, outside Lisbon. JPE painted during the war years, several of London’s Green Park in full blossom. Also one of St. Paul’s Cathedral seen from a bombed out building, Rooftops in the evening light.
She was close to her mother and sisters, but did not know her father for very long and he sadly slipped out of their lives.

JPE took her paintbrushes wherever she went, like a camera. She painted what she saw, some 1000 beautiful water colours in her lifetime, the old resorts, the lakes, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Norway, France, Spain, Portugal, England, Germany, America, Canada,…villages, glaciers, mountains and chalets, beaches and dunes, cathedrals, boats,
The paintings to this day are still fresh and one loves them the more one sees them. Following them chronologically, one can see developments in her style.
– The hotels, Beau Rivage and Chateau d’Ouchy, her view in Lausanne (in the drawing room)
– London rooftops in the evening light from her apartment in Chelsea with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben in the background
– Views of Manhattan
JPE loved writing as well, she wrote several diaries and a few poems:
– Two visits to Norway are well documented, the first in a beautiful hand-written travelogue with paintings and sketches in 1894, the second, a beautiful album with several paintings in 1901 of fjords, flag decked ships on midsummer night, the famous cathedral constructed in wood,…
– Wrote ‘Tommy’s Christmas holiday’ for her son Archie and ‘London as I saw it’ during the war
– Wrote poems in remembrance of her sister who died in her arms.