George Clausen

Selfportrait

World War I poster by George Clausen from 1915.
Caption: "The Underground Railway of London, knowing how many of their passengers are now engaged in important business in France and other parts of the world, send out this reminder of home. Thanks are due to George Clausen RA for the drawing." Below the drawing is a poem by Samuel Rogers, "A wish, mine be a cot beside the hill..."

The Gleaners Returning, 1908.
George Clausen shared the view with the impressionists that light is the real subject of landscape art.

Sir George Clausen RA (18 April 1852 – 22 November 1944), was an English artist working in oil and watercolour, etching, mezzotint, dry point and occasionally lithographs. He was knighted in 1927.

Biography

George Clausen was born in London on 18 April 1852, the son of a decorative artist. From 1867 to 1873, he attended the design classes at the South Kensington Schools in London with great success. He then worked in the studio of Edwin Long RA, and subsequently in Paris under Bouguereau and Robert-Fleury.^[1] He was an admirer of the naturalism of the painter Jules Bastien-Lepage; about whom he wrote in 1888 and 1892.

Clausen became one of the foremost modern painters of landscape and of peasant life, influenced to a certain extent by the impressionists, with whom he shared the view that light is the real subject of landscape art. His pictures excel in rendering the appearance of things under flecking outdoor sunlight, or in the shady shelter of a barn or stable. His Girl at the Gate was acquired by the Chantrey Trustees and is now at the Tate Gallery. ^[1]

In 1895 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy, and a full Academician in 1906. As Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy he gave a memorable series of lectures to the students of the Schools, published as Six Lectures on Painting (1904) and Aims and Ideals in Art (1906).^[1]

Clausen was an official war artist during World War I. During the war his daughter's fiancé was killed; this event may have inspired his painting, Youth Mourning.

• Selected works
• 

  Bird scaring, 1887

• 

  Girl, 1888

• 

  Ploughing, 1889

• 

  Brown eyes, 1891

• 

  Youth Mourning, 1916

• 

  Morning in November, 1922

References

1. Chisholm 1911.

Attribution

•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Clausen, George". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.

Sources

• Gibson, Frank. The Etchings and Lithographs of George Clausen, R.A. The Print Collector’s Quarterly 1921 July Vol 8, No. 2, p 203.
• Gibson, Frank. The Etchings and Lithographs of George Clausen (Catalogue) The Print Collector’s Quarterly 1921 July Vol 8, No. 2, p 212.
• Gibson, Frank. Notes to Catalogue of Etchings by George Clausen The Print Collector’s Quarterly 1921 Dec Vol 8, No. 4, p 433.
• Rutherson, Albert (editor). Contemporary British Artists: George Clausen Publisher: Ernest Benn Ltd, 1923
• Sir George Clausen, R.A. 1852-1944; Bradford Art Gallery, 1980. Catalogue of an exhibition held in Bradford, London, Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne in 1980.

External links

• Examples of Sir George Clausen's work
• Biographical details
• www.artistarchive.com Gibson catalogue of 50 prints with a description of each.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.