Joseph Clark (4 July 1834 – 4 July 1926) was an English oil painter, well known in the Victorian era for his domestic scenes, especially of children.
Joseph Clark | |
|---|---|
 Clark's "Three little kittens", 1883 | |
| Born | 4 July 1834 Cerne Abbas, Dorset, England |
| Died | 4 July 1926 (aged 92) |
| Nationality | English |
| Education | J. M. Leigh's Art School |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work | domestic scenes |
| Spouse | Annie Jones |
Life edit
Born in 1834 in Cerne Abbas, Dorset,[1] from the age of eleven Clark was educated as a boarder by William Barnes at his school in Dorchester, and according to a study of the school "exploited Barnes's training perhaps more successfully than any other pupil".[2][3]
His parents brought Clark up as a member of the Swedenborgian New Church, and he remained a member all his life.[3] By 1851, Clark's father had died, and he was living at 13, Long Street, Cerne Abbas, with his widowed mother, who was a retired draper, and two older unmarried sisters, Mary and Emma.[n 1] He went on to train at J. M. Leigh's art school and became a successful artist at an early age, exhibiting at the Royal Academy between 1857 and 1904. Victorian Painters sums him up as a "painter of domestic genre of a tender and affecting nature, usually of children and a few biblical subjects".[4] He was elected a Member of the Institute of Oil Painters,[1] which had a membership limited to one hundred.[5] Some of his paintings were named in the Dorset dialect,[3] in which his schoolmaster William Barnes wrote poetry.[6] "Jeanes Wedden Day in Mornen", which is also the title of a poem by Barnes,[7] is an example of this.[3]
In 1868, at Winchester, Clark married Annie Jones, a daughter of John Jones, of Winchester, and they went on to have one son and three daughters.[n 2][1] He was also the uncle of another artist, Joseph Benwell Clark.[4]
Clark died at 95 Hereson Road, Ramsgate, Kent, on 4 July 1926, his 92nd birthday.[n 3][1][8]
Notes edit
- ^ 1851 United Kingdom census, Long Street, Cerne Abbas at ancestry.co.uk, accessed 8 October 2020 (subscription required)
- ^ "Jones, Annie, Winchester 2c 184" and "Clark, Joseph, Winchester 2c 184" in General Index to Marriages in England and Wales, 1868
- ^ "Clark, Joseph, 92 / Thanet 2a 1037" in General Index to Deaths in England and Wales, 1926
References edit
- ^ a b c d "Clark, Joseph, (4 July 1834–4 July 1926)", in Who Was Who 1916–1928 (1992 reprint, ISBN 0-7136-3143-0): "Member of Institute of Oil Painters, Born Cerne Abbas, Dorsetshire, 4 July 1834; m 1868, d of John Jones, Winchester; one s three d; died 4 July 1926"
- ^ T. W. Hearl, William Barnes, 1801–1886, the Schoolmaster: A Study of Education in the Life and Work of the Dorset Poet (Friary Press, 1966), p. 205: "Joseph Clark, who came from Cerne Abbas to join the school as a boarder of 11 , in 1845 or early 1846 , exploited Barnes's training perhaps more successfully than any other pupil..."
- ^ a b c d Joseph Clark (1834–1926) Artist in Oils at Dorset Ancestors, accessed 8 October 2020
- ^ a b "Clark, Joseph ROI 1834–1926" in Christopher Wood, Christopher Newall, Margaret Richardson, Victorian Painters (Antique Collectors' Club, 2008), p. 101
- ^ Scientific and Learned Societies of Great Britain: A Handbook Compiled from Official Sources, Vol. 61 (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1964), p. 184
- ^ William Barnes in Encyclopædia Britannica, archive.org, accessed 17 October 2020
- ^ William Barnes, ed. Bernard Jones, The Poems of William Barnes, Vol. 1 (Centaur Press, 1962), 110; "Jeanes Wedden Day in Mornen", from Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect at WikiSource
- ^ "Veteran artist: death at Ramsgate". Thanet Advertiser. British Newspaper Archive. 28 August 1926. p. 6 col.7. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
Further reading edit
- Eric Galvin, Joseph Clark: A Popular Victorian Artist and his World (Portway Publishing, 2016, ISBN 978-1910388259)
External links edit
- Joseph Clark (British, 1834–1926) at Artnet
- "Joseph Clark (1834–1926) Artist in Oils" at Dorset Ancestors