22
Margaret Clarke (née Crilley) RHA (1888-1961)
Estimate:
€20,000 - €30,000
Sold
€48,000
Live Auction
Important Irish Art - 26 November 2018
Size
16 by 12in. (40.6 by 30.5cm)
Description
Title: SELF PORTRAIT, c.1914
Note: "Margaret Crilley's Self-Portrait declares ambition and singleness of purpose. Like Grace Gifford and Beatrice Elvery, she was of the new age of Irish Women's suffrage. Confident in herself and in the teaching of her master, William Orpen, she directly engages with the spectator. The histrionics of Orpen's An Aran Islander were not to become part of her own self-image. Orpen's influence enters her work in small sections of borrowed visual shorthand in the brushes and in the treatments of the brilliant blue cardigan. This picture demonstrates Crilley's commitment to honest reports and its force is drawn from its ruthless self-scrutiny." (McConkey, Kenneth 1990)Ranked by the Studio magazine as "one of the most brilliant" of Orpen's protégés, Margaret Clarke was a leading portrait artist of the Edwardian era, becoming in 1927 one of the first women to be granted full membership of the RHA. Born Margaret Crilley, in Newry, Co. Down, she first studied art at the local technical school, where she won a scholarship. In 1905 she came to Dublin to further her studies at the Metropolitan School of Art, there coming under Orpen's tutelage. She worked as both studio assistant and model for Orpen. At the Metropolitan School she was awarded many prizes including a teacher training scholarship. In 1914 she visited the Aran Islands with her future husband, the stained-glass artist and illustrator Harry Clarke. After her husband's death in 1931 she took on the work of running his stained-glass studio, concurrent with maintaining her own painting career. Their son David, also an artist, later joined the business. In 1932 the Haverty Trust commissioned her to paint St Patrick for the Mansion House, Dublin. Other commissions included portraits of Eamon de Valera, Lennox Robinson and Archbishop McQuaid. She held a solo exhibition at the Dublin Painters Gallery in 1939, and four years later helped establish the first Irish Living Art Exhibition. Her work is represented in all major public collections in Ireland and was most recently celebrated in 2017 with a major exhibition 'Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit' at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin and the F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge. The present work was a highlight in that exhibition. It is noted in the exhibition catalogue to Irish Women Artists (Dublin, 1987) that the present work was painted shortly before the artist's marriage to fellow artist Harry Clarke RHA (1889-1931) in 1914 and may be the self-portrait exhibited by her at the RHA, Dublin in 1918 as number 83, though at least one other self-portrait is known.
Note: "Margaret Crilley's Self-Portrait declares ambition and singleness of purpose. Like Grace Gifford and Beatrice Elvery, she was of the new age of Irish Women's suffrage. Confident in herself and in the teaching of her master, William Orpen, she directly engages with the spectator. The histrionics of Orpen's An Aran Islander were not to become part of her own self-image. Orpen's influence enters her work in small sections of borrowed visual shorthand in the brushes and in the treatments of the brilliant blue cardigan. This picture demonstrates Crilley's commitment to honest reports and its force is drawn from its ruthless self-scrutiny." (McConkey, Kenneth 1990)Ranked by the Studio magazine as "one of the most brilliant" of Orpen's protégés, Margaret Clarke was a leading portrait artist of the Edwardian era, becoming in 1927 one of the first women to be granted full membership of the RHA. Born Margaret Crilley, in Newry, Co. Down, she first studied art at the local technical school, where she won a scholarship. In 1905 she came to Dublin to further her studies at the Metropolitan School of Art, there coming under Orpen's tutelage. She worked as both studio assistant and model for Orpen. At the Metropolitan School she was awarded many prizes including a teacher training scholarship. In 1914 she visited the Aran Islands with her future husband, the stained-glass artist and illustrator Harry Clarke. After her husband's death in 1931 she took on the work of running his stained-glass studio, concurrent with maintaining her own painting career. Their son David, also an artist, later joined the business. In 1932 the Haverty Trust commissioned her to paint St Patrick for the Mansion House, Dublin. Other commissions included portraits of Eamon de Valera, Lennox Robinson and Archbishop McQuaid. She held a solo exhibition at the Dublin Painters Gallery in 1939, and four years later helped establish the first Irish Living Art Exhibition. Her work is represented in all major public collections in Ireland and was most recently celebrated in 2017 with a major exhibition 'Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit' at the National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin and the F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge. The present work was a highlight in that exhibition. It is noted in the exhibition catalogue to Irish Women Artists (Dublin, 1987) that the present work was painted shortly before the artist's marriage to fellow artist Harry Clarke RHA (1889-1931) in 1914 and may be the self-portrait exhibited by her at the RHA, Dublin in 1918 as number 83, though at least one other self-portrait is known.
Medium
oil on canvas
Signature
signed [M. Crilley] lower left; with typed Pyms Gallery and National Gallery of Ireland exhibition labels on reverse
Provenance
Collection of the artist;Mrs Michele Whelan n.d.;with Pyms Gallery, London;Private collection
Literature
Irish Women Artists From the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day National Gallery of Ireland and the Douglas Hyde Gallery, Dublin, 1987, p.128 (illustrated);McConkey, Kenneth, A Free Spirit, Irish Art 1860-1960, Antique Collectors' Club in association with Pyms Gallery, London, 1990, p.142-143 (colour plate no. 36)
Exhibited
Possibly exhibited at the RHA, Dublin, 1918, no. 83;Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 1979, no. 44;'Irish Women Artists', National Gallery of Ireland and Douglas Hyde Gallery and The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin, July to August 1987, catalogue no. 100 (lent by Mrs Michele Whelan);'Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit', National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 13 May to 20 August 2017 and F.E. McWilliam Gallery & Studio, Banbridge, 15 September to 18 November 2017, catalogue no. 1 (loaned from present collection)
