Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS

(British, 1852-1944)

Eight sketches and preparatory studies

Footnotes

Provenance
Mr. Ralph Fastnedge DFC (Curator of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight)
Thence by descent

Literature
K. McConkey, George Clausen and the Picture of English Rural Life, 2012
K. McConkey, Sir George Clausen RA, RWS, 1852-1944, 1980 (exhibition catalogue, Bradford and Tyne and Wear Museums)

i Study for The Scareboy, 1887
watercolour and bodycolour, 23 x 22.5cm (9 x 9in)

The present watercolour relates to Clausen's oil painting Bird Scaring 1887 (Private Collection, see McConkey, 2012, p.82 illus). An uncoloured ink drawing is in the Royal Academy of Arts Collection. The subject was also reprised as Crow Starving (unlocated, McConkey, p.98)

ii Study of two country girls
pastel and graphite, 37 x 24cm (14 1/2 x 9 1/2in)
verso, a light unfinished drawing of fieldworkers

With the inauguration of pastel exhibitions at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1888, a revival of the medium was underway. Clausen, on friendly terms with the gallery's director, Sir Coutts Lindsay, had already used pastel during his years in Hertfordshire, 1881-4. Large sketchbooks containing thin buff paper became available at the end of the decade, and this support accentuated the vivid colour of the medium. Its use facilitated experimentation that would have a lasting impact on his oil technique. The present pastel, c. 1889, may represent the younger sisters of his model, Polly Baldwin.

iii The Haystack
pastel on buff paper, 23 x 35cm (9 x 13 3/4in)

iv The Cottage Garden
pastel on buff paper, 20 x 29cm (8 x 11 1/2in)

Drawings iii and iv are likely to have been rapidly sketched not long after Clausen's removal to Widdington in Essex in 1891. Other closely related field studies of a similar size are in the Royal Academy collection.

v Study for Gleaners Coming Home, 1904
coloured chalks, 39 x 28cm (15 1/4 x 11in)

When he left London for the countryside in 1881, Clausen's subject matter changed radically and he immediately embarked on a painting of Gleaners (Private collection). One of his first forays into the Rural Naturalism of Bastien-Lepage, it represents a group of women and children in an open field, their actions, as in a snapshot, for the most part uncoordinated. During the next twenty years this humble activity was studied with greater sophistication. Groups adopted a characteristic rhythm, and the dynamic movement of individual figures was drawn and redrawn, as Naturalism gave way to more Impressionistic techniques. The present study represents the right hand figure in Clausen's monumental Gleaners Coming Home, 1904 (Tate). Other studies are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and an etching of the figure was also made (see McConkey, 2012, p.140, illus.).

vi A Girl's Head
graphite, 26 x 18cm (10 1/4 x 7in)

The present drawing is one of a series c. 1912-14, possibly of Dorothy (Dolly) Henry, related to paintings of classical figures, culminating in Primavera, 1914 (see McConkey, 2012, pp.158, 165).

vii Study for The Old Tree
watercolour, 34 x 42cm (13 1/4 x 16 1/4in)

From his student days Clausen was an admirer of the work of Jean-François Millet. In the 1880s he had collected Millet's etchings. One of the French artist's celebrated motifs in Peasants pulling a pig, (The Pig Killers), 1867-70 (National Gallery of Canada) shows a tug of war which Clausen has translated into the removal of a stubborn dead tree stump in the present sketch. A more finished version, c.1920, is contained in the Holburne Museum, Bath (see McConkey, 1980, p.101, no.141).

viii Study for The Nativity
ink and watercolour, 17 x 22cm (6 3/4 x 8 3/4in)
verso, a pencil study for The Nativity

The present study, painted around 1940, relates to one of Clausen's final projects, The Nativity (Sheffield City Art Galleries, see McConkey, 1980, p.111; McConkey, 2012, p.203). The subject was inspired by his longstanding admiration for Rembrandt's Adoration of the Shepherds, 1646 (National Gallery, London). A further study is contained in the Holburne Museum, Bath.

This important group of drawings, taken with lot 89, illustrate many facets of Clausen's career from the late 1880s to the early 1940s. Not only do they reveal an interesting range of subject matter, they also demonstrate the variety of media deployed - graphite, pastel and watercolour. We can assume that Jack Wood Palmer of the Arts Council had a hand in their selection. In some instances 'GC' inscriptions were added in the late 1940s by the artist's son, Hugh Clausen.

We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.