Jacqueline Groag was born as Hilde Pick to Jewish parents on 6 April 1903. She later changed her name to Jacqueline Groag when she married modernist architect Jacques Groag in 1937.
Education
As a child she had been in poor health and, unlike her siblings, had been educated at home. She learned all the subjects of the education curriculum, but with no formal exams — something that left her a "sophisticated naïve". Groag studied textile design in Vienna and thrived under the schooling of professor Franz Cižek, who was delighted by her lack of previous formal art education, during the 1920s. Franz Cižek also recommended her to Josef Hoffmann, head of the Wiener Werkstätte, where she became one of his students in the design school of the Kunstgewerbeschule. As a student she won first prize in a competition organised by the Kunstgewerbeschule.
Vienna
In 1930, Groag was mentioned in an article by Dr. Hans von Ankwicz for the German publication Deutsche Kunst und Dekoration on her work. Ankwicz described her as a "front-runner of the Hoffmann school" who "currently dominated the design of textiles, particularly prints".
In 1938, Jacqueline and Jacques fled to Prague, Czechoslovakia due to the Nazi unification of Austria and Germany, the Anschluss. Their stay in Prague didn't last long as they were forced to flee Prague in 1939 for London following the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia. When they arrived in London, they were greeted by the leading member of the British Design Factory, including Sir Gordon Russell, Sir Charles Reilly and Jack Pritchard.
Work
During the 1930s Jacqueline Groag travelled to cities such as Paris and New York to enhance her international reputation. She was awarded a gold medal for textile design at the Milano Triennale in 1933 and another gold medal for printed textiles at the Paris Exposition in 1937.
In 1945 she received the accolade of one of her dress fabrics being chosen by the couturier Edward Molyneux for a collection of dresses for Her Majesty the Queen. In 1947 Jacqueline and Jacques gained British citizenship and became members of the Society of Industrial Artists. In 1951 the Festival of Britain took place, and most of the contemporary styles of textiles and wallpapers where heavily influenced by her work from the 1940s. From that point she became a major influence on pattern design internationally with clients like the Associated American Artists, Hallmark Cards and John Lewis. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s she became more and more involved with Sir Misha Black and the Design Research Unit, working on the interiors of boats, aircraft and trains. She especially worked on the design of textiles and plastics for British Overseas Airways Corporation and British Rail. She also got a commission from Misha Black in the 1970s to make a moquette for London Transport, for seating on buses and tube trains.
