Eva Crofts

Eva Crofts (born Evangeline Johnson) was an English textile and ceramics artist during the 20th century. Crofts described her work as “natural happiness and of clear unalloyed pleasure.” Crofts primarily designed for a range of textile manufacturers including Sundour Fabrics and Donald Brothers Ltd in Dundee. Her work was widely exhibited including at the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne, Paris in 1937. She was a contemporary of the Bloomsbury Group artists and her work was widely exhibited with many of their work.

Evangeline Johnson was born in Greasley, Nottinghamshire in 1875. One of the three daughters of Charles and Charlotte Johnson. Charles Johnson abandoned the family shortly after the third child Laura was born. Her sister, Dame Laura Knight, was the first woman elected to full membership of the Royal Academy of the Arts and affectionately called Eva “Sissie”. Croft’s mother was Charlotte Johnson who taught at Nottingham School of Art. After Charlotte Johnson’s death Eva and her sisters were left to live alone on very little money. She lost her sister Nellie and both grandmothers within a short period of time of losing her mother. Crofts never formally trained in fine art and initially began training as a teacher at the age of 16.
In the mid-1890s Eva lived with her sister Laura at the Castle Rooms in Nottingham. In 1898 they moved to the artists’ colony at Staithes on the North Yorkshire coast. Eva stayed there until 1901 when she moved to St. Quentin in the north of France to keep house for Arthur Bates, her maternal uncle, who had a lace making business there. Arthur Bates encouraged Eva to develop her artistic talents and paid for her to attend the Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris.
In 1908, Arthur Bates sold his lace making business in St. Quentin and retired to “The Limes” in Nonington, Kent. Eva was still her uncle’s house-keeper and companion, and with his support and encouragement she continued to design ceramics and textiles with ever increasing success.
In May of 1910 Eva married Robert Crofts, at the St Mary the Virgin church, in Nonington. Crofts was a Canterbury pharmacist whose family lived at “The Firs” a few yards from “The Limes”.
Eva showed that she was a talented ceramic and textile designer in her own right and designed ceramics for such companies as A.J. Wilkinson and E. Brain & Co. As Eva Crofts she contributed designs to Clarice Cliff’s Bizarre Bon Jour and Krafton Bon Jour ranges in the 1930s, both of which are still sought after and collected.
Eva also became better known for her work as a textile designer for companies such as Donald Brothers, Turnbull & Stockdale, and Warner & Sons. Eva looked after her uncle until his death in 1931, and after his death his estate was divided between Laura and herself. The two sisters remained close and frequently wrote to each other. Eva continued to live in Nonington until her death in 1946.