Shepherd Boy in Wooded Glade
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Research by Jacqueline Arundel
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Acc No 27
Artist Sir George Clausen RA, RWS, RI Artist dates 1852-1944 Medium oil on canvas Size 50.8 x 91.4 cm (20 x 36 in) Date painted unknown Donor unknown Date donated unknown |
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PAINTING
Nostalgic for a passing way of life, the artist paints a shepherd boy resting against a tree in late summer. Whilst minding his sheep he cools near a stream in a wooded glade. Objects are reduced to their basic shapes with rapid visible strokes of paint thinly applied, greens, browns, greys, and ochres. The canvas is visible in many places, apart from the foreground where the application of paint is thicker. The sunlight sparkles on the water, the boy sits in dappled light, and the sheep graze in a pool of light. This painting shows effects of light and the atmosphere, which gives the impression of the moment, the effects of the passage of time. Painted with a low angle of view the triangle wedge of meadow, where the sheep graze, added to the direction of the river and the tall grass at the water edge, leads your eye to the boy positioned just in front of the vanishing point. ARTIST 
Self Portrait by Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS, RI
Clausen was a British artist, one of the ‘rural naturalists’, a young generation of mainly French-trained artists who painted realistic scenes of everyday country life in a semi-Impressionist style. (Smith, 2009) The tendency for sentimentalism distinguishes their work from the more gritty, realist work of the nineteenth century artworks painted in a realistic almost photographic way. Clausen started painting ‘en plein-air’ (out in nature) ‘rural naturalist’ subjects from 1880. (Tate, 2004) He was born in London in 1852, the son of a Danish artist and a woman of Scottish descent. At fourteen he was apprenticed to the drawing office of Messrs Trollope, a London firm of decorators. On a two-year scholarship he attended evening classes at the National Art Training School, South Kensington. (McConkey, 2014) After this he decided to further his training at the Antwerp Academy. His early work reflected the influence of the Hague School (1860-1890) (FAS, 2014), a group of painters reacting against artists of the art academies who ‘idealised’ reality, and included several Dutch artists who aspired to render what they saw realistically. They admired the French Barbizon School artists (c1830-1870), a French movement towards Realism (c1840-1900), who sought to convey a truthful and objective vision of contemporary life. This arose in the context of the dominant melodramatic picturesqueness of the Romantic Movement of that time. (EB, 2014) The Hague School worked as much as possible ‘en plein-air’ as they were intent on capturing the light and atmosphere of a landscape. Initially, the colours they used were gloomy, consisting of mostly greyish tints. This changed under the influence of French Impressionism; their palette became lighter and brighter and the facture looser. A younger generation of painters in Amsterdam continued this less formal painting tradition; they were called the Amsterdam Impressionists. (RIJK, 2014) Whilst in the Netherlands Clausen travelled along the coast making studies in the fishing villages on his way. At this time Clausen also embarked on his first forays to Paris, where the influence of French art took root in his practice; Clausen moved towards a much brighter, more impressionist style which clearly shows French influence. (FAS, 2014) Returning to Britain his works demonstrated a greater interest in movement and atmosphere. (McConkey, 2014) In 1885 he, and fourteen others, founded the New English Art Club, London (NEAC), whose aim was to establish an exhibiting society along French lines. These painters had studied and worked in Paris and felt dissatisfaction with the exhibition potential of the very academic Royal Academy. The NEAC were influenced by The Hague School, the ‘plein-air’ painting of French Impressionists and the Barbizon School. They were rebelling against what they perceived to be the diluted Pre-Raphaelitism dominant within the establishment. (NEAC, 2014) Clausen was the most widely respected of the NEAC painters, promoting the interests of French Impressionism and the Glasgow Boys, a collective who did much to interpret and expand the canon of Impressionist and Post-impressionist painting. Their subject matter, to capture the character of Scotland, featured ordinary people and scenes in and around Glasgow. (FAS, 2014) In 1895 Clausen was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy and a full Academician in 1906, where he was committed to reforming the selection process of the Royal Academy. By 1904 he was so prominent that he became Professor of Painting, a post he held for two years; his lectures were so popular that they were instantly published. In 1917 he was appointed as an official war artist but because of his advanced years he was assigned to the Woolwich Arsenal (McConkey, 2014) who carried out armaments manufacture, ammunition proofing and explosive research for the British armed forces at a site on the south bank of the River Thames, London. The success of his war commission led to several invitations to paint murals, notably The English People Reading Wycliffe's Bible for the Houses of Parliament (1925-1927), and upon completion of this project he was knighted for his services to the arts. 
George Clausen ‘The English People Reading Wycliffe's Bible’, (1925–1927)
Oil on canvas, 304.8 x 442 cm (120 x 174 in) Palace of Westminster During the 1920s Clausen painted numerous landscapes around his country cottage on Dutton Hill, Essex. (FAS, 2014)
In the 1930s he continued to exhibit regularly at the Royal Academy and in his 88th year his My Back Garden (1940) was purchased by the Trustees of the Chantrey Bequest. (McConkey, 2014) It was a great honour for an artist to have a picture purchased under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest. The sculptor, Sir Francis Chantrey (1781–1841), bequeathed a fortune and asked that the income on the money be used to buy paintings and sculpture made in Britain, with a view to encouraging the establishment of a public national collection of British fine art. The fund is administered by the Royal Academy of Arts and the first work that was bought for the collection in 1877 is now held at the Tate Gallery, London. (Tate, 2014) 
George Clausen, ‘My Back Garden’ (1940), Oil on canvas, 508 x 610 mm, Tate Collection, London |
REFERENCES
EB, Encyclopaedia Britannica (2014), Barbizon School, available @ http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/52959/Barbizon-school FAS, (2014), Fine Art Society, Sir George Clausen RA, RWS (1852-1944) @ http://www.faslondon.com/fine_art_society/artists/c/sir_george_clausen.html McConkey, K, ( 2014), Sir George Clausen 1852–1944, Tate, London @ http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-george-clausen-96 NEAC, (2014), New English Art Club Origins - Contemporary British Figurative Painting, ‘The way we were...’, @ http://www.newenglishartclub.co.uk/origins_and_today.asp RIJK, (2014), Rijks Museum, Museum of the Netherlands, The Hague School @ https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/explore-the-collection/styles/the-hague-school Sartin, S, (2001), Fylde Borough Collection of Works of Art, Catalogue No 5, Lancashire County Museum @ http://www.lythamstannesartcollection.org/the-treasures.html Smith, A, (2009), Sir George Clausen, The Farmer’s Boy 1895, Tate, London @ http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/clausen-the-farmers-boy-t12867/text-summary Tate, (2004), Rural naturalism @ http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/r/rural-naturalism Tate, (2014), Chantrey Bequest @ http://www.tate.org.uk/about/our-work/collection/about-the-collection/gifts-and-bequests Bibliography Images Clausen, G, Self Portrait by Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS, RI @ http://www.the-athenaeum.org/people/detail.php?id=2863 Clausen, G, (1925–1927), The English People Reading Wycliffe's Bible, BBC Painting @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-english-people-reading-wycliffes-bible-213782 Clausen, G, Shepherd Boy in Wooded Glade, Lytham Art Collection @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/shepherd-boy-in-wooded-glade Clausen, G, (1940), My Back Garden, Tate Collection, London @ http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-george-clausen-96 |
