Joseph Clark (painter)
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Joseph Clark | |
|---|---|
 Clark's "Three little kittens", 1883 | |
| Born | 4 July 1834 Cerne Abbas, Dorset, England |
| Died | 4 July 1926 (aged 92) |
| Education | J. M. Leigh's Art School |
| Known for | Painting |
| Notable work | domestic scenes |
| Spouse | Annie Jones |
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.
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]
