Art Work by Rich Wagner
  • Great Artists
  • Art Museums
  • Art by Rich Wagner
  • Art reviews index
  • Beyondships Art Blog
  • Beyondships Cruise Destinations
  • Original Art
  • Art by Valda
  • Beyondships cruise ships
  • Notices
  • Privacy Policy
  • London Art Roundup
  • AMB
  • Stephen Card Exhibition
  • Visiting Exhibitions

Beyondships Art Blog

REVIEW: Margret Clarke Exhibition, national gallery OF IRELAND, DUBLIN

6/9/2017

 
Picture
 When I was in Dublin, Ireland recently, I had the good fortune to see a small retrospective exhibition of the works of Margret Clarke at the National Gallery of Ireland.

Margret Clarke (1884-1961) was a woman artist who achieved  success as an artist in the first half of the 20th century. I mention the fact that she was a woman because in those days there was a great deal of prejudice against women and thus for a woman to have achieved success in those days is all the more impressive.

Ms. Clarke began her artistic training at Newry Municipal Technical College continuing on to the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art (“DMSA”). Her goal was to become an art teacher and she obtained an art teacher certificate in 1907. However, she won numerous scholarships and prizes thus enabling her to embark on a career as a professional artist.

Two paintings in the exhibition by her teacher at the DMSA, Sir William Orpen, show Ms. Clarke as having an intelligent face with lively eyes. These same characteristics appear in her self-portrait.

Ms. Clarke achieved success as a portrait painter and her subjects include such ntables as the future Irish prime minister Eamon de Valera. The portrait commissions are traditional and somewhat reminiscent of John Singer Sargent's portrait commissions.

Her private works, which cover diverse subjects including family portraits, nude studies and genre paintings, are less conservative. You can see influences of artists such as Cezane and El Greco as well as Asian prints.

Still, the works that really spoke to me were Ms. Clarke's drawings, mostly graphite on paper but also charcoal on paper. These drawings were technically superb but at the same time sensitive. Her drawing of her husband, the artist and designer Harry Clarke, done around the time of their marriage in 1914 conveys the emotion that she felt for the sitter bringing him alive. Similarly, her sketches of Julia O'Brien, who worked in the Clarke household in the 1920s have unusual sensitivity. They communicate, which to me is the hallmark of good art.

Margret Clarke was only the second woman to become a full time member of the Royal Hiberian Academy in 1927. But while she achieved this degree of success during her lifetime, her reputation faded subsequently. This refelects the fact that the art establishment became co-oped by abstraction during the mid to late 20th century. Figurative work was rejected as passe and unintellectual. Such thinking has now been exposed as close-minded nonsense. Therefore, the National Gallery of Ireland's decision to spotlight the work of an artist who has undeservedly been ignored is to be applauded.


Comments are closed.

    Author

    Rich Wagner is a writer, photographer and artist.

    This blog presents reviews of art exhibitions and art collections as well as articles on art and art technique.

    Archives

    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017

    Categories

    All
    Alexander Calder
    American Art
    Anthem Of The Seas
    Art
    Art Analysis
    Art Classes
    Art Review
    Art Technique
    Asian Art
    Asia Society Museum
    Auguste Rodin
    Charcoal
    Claude
    Claude Monet
    Colin McDowell
    Contemporary Art
    Corner Of A Cafe Concert
    Cruise Ship Art Class
    Cruise Ship Art Collections
    Cunard
    David Hockney
    Drawing
    Edouard Manet
    Exhibition Review
    Fashion Illustration
    Fashion Week
    Fine Art
    Folk Art
    Frederic Remington
    French Art
    Guernsey Museum
    Gustav Klimt
    Henry James
    Holland America
    Illustration
    Impressionism
    Indian Art
    Irish Museum Of Modern Art
    James McNeill Whistler
    Jason Brooks
    John Constable
    John Singer Sargent
    Joseph Cornell
    Juan Gris
    Kenneth Paul Black
    La Grenouillere
    Leon Golub
    Lucian Freud
    Manet
    Margret Clarke
    Matisse
    Matisse In The Studio
    Maud Lewis
    Max Ernst
    Metropolitan Museum Of Art
    Milk Fixative
    Modern Art
    MOMA
    Morgan Library And Museum
    Museums
    National Gallery Of Scotland
    National Portrait Gallery
    Neue Galerie
    Ocean Liners
    Painting
    Pastel Portraits
    Pastels
    Perez Art Museum
    Peter Le Vasseur
    Picasso
    Portraiture
    Poussin
    Queen Mary 2
    Rembrandt
    Review
    Royal Academy
    Sculpture
    Self-analyis
    Sketching
    Smart Phone
    Stephen Card
    Susan Klibanoff
    Victoria & Albert Museum
    Watercolor Class
    Whitney Museum Of American Art
    William McTaggart



    RSS Feed

Beyondships Cruise Destinations
(Travel articles about and profiles of destinations). 
Beyondships Cruise Ship Profiles
(Information about cruise ships)
Beyondships Cruise Ship Pictorials and Reviews
(Photos, videos and reviews of cruise ships)
Beyondships LLC 
Notices
Privacy Policy 
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Great Artists
  • Art Museums
  • Art by Rich Wagner
  • Art reviews index
  • Beyondships Art Blog
  • Beyondships Cruise Destinations
  • Original Art
  • Art by Valda
  • Beyondships cruise ships
  • Notices
  • Privacy Policy
  • London Art Roundup
  • AMB
  • Stephen Card Exhibition
  • Visiting Exhibitions