JOSEPH CLARK
(British 1834 - 1926)

AVAILABLE WORKS

Victorian artist Joseph Clark is celebrated as a painter in oil of domestic genre 'of a tender and affecting' nature, usually children and sometimes biblical subjects.  He was born on the fourth of July, 1834 in the small town of Cerne Abbas, about eight miles from Dorchester, and at the age of eleven moved to Dorchester as a boarder at the school of the Rev. William Barnes, known as the "Dorsetshire Poet", from whom he received instruction in drawing. The influence of this early education can be seen in the titles of some of his later work in the Dorset dialect of his former teacher, some works being directly influenced by William Barnes poems. At the age of eighteen he went to London and studied for two years at the gallery of James M. Leigh in Newman Street, after which he continued to receive academic training at the Royal Academy. He exhibited for the first time at the Royal Academy in 1857 and would continue to exhibit there almost every year until 1904. 

Like many of the Victorian artists of the time Clark sought to show his social conscience through his painting. By focusing on family life and childhood genre scenes, his work strove to remind one of the importance of caring for children and the value of family. This was especially relevant as many children were orphaned and forced to work in workhouses. His technique was to create a series of drawings and watercolours, often using his own family as models, prior to working up the final oil painting.

Clark was elected a member of the Institute of Oil Painters, which had a membership limited to only one hundred.  As his success spread, he became a popular choice for American collectors, receiving a medal in Philadelphia in 1876 for his paintings "Sick Child" and "Bird's Nest". Clark exhibited consistently at the Royal Academy from 1857-1904 with such works as "The Sick Child" 1857, "Cottage Door" 1859, "The Wanderer" and "Restored" 1861, "The Return of the Runaway" and "Preparing for Sunday" both in 1862, and "Early Promise" in 1877. He was also a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Oil Colours (R.O.I.) and exhibited at British Institution, Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, New Watercolour Society, Grosvenor Gallery and throughout England and Scotland. He is represented in the Tate Gallery by "Early Promise" 1877 and "Mother's Darling" 1884 and in the Victoria Albert Museum in London.