Adams Important Irish Art 23rd March 2016 : You can Download a PDF Version from the Bottom Menu Down Arrow Icon

Oil on panel, 46 x 56cm (18 x 22”)

Signed

Exhibited:

David Clarke Retrospective

, The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, Cat. No. 62 (label verso) where purchased

Margaret Clarke was born and educated in Newry. In 1906 she was awarded a scholarship to the DMSA, where she became one of

Orpen’s star pupils, and won many prizes. Her fellow students included Beatrice Glenavy, James Sleator, Kathleen Fox, Leo Whelan,

Patrick Tuohy and Harry Clarke, whom she married in 1915.

Margaret excelled at portrait painting. Her dispassionate, searching eye enabled her to reveal the deep nature, the “true self “ of the

sitter, even when painting her own family. She was commissioned to paint many notable figures of the times, including Eamon De Val-

era, Dr. John Charles McQuaid and Dermod O’Brien (President of the RHA). Strong-minded and independent, she particularly enjoyed

the artistic and intellectual freedom of genre painting such as “The Ghost Sonate” (Ulster Museum)’ based on a play by Strindberg, or

“Bathtime at the Creche” (National Gallery). Her outstanding ability as a draughtswoman can be appreciated in all her work.

Like so many women artists she had to combine devotion to her career with the care of her family, and after Harry’s death, with much

of the responsibility for the studios on a greatly reduced income. Genre paintings became a luxury rarely affordable. In later life she

loved to paint delightful, simple vases of flowers or scenes from the Wicklow hills. She died in Dublin in 1961.

Fiana Griffin

€ 400 - 600