George
Clausen,
the son of a Dutch decorative painter who had emigrated to England,
was born in 1852. He attended the South
Kensington School and the Academie Julian in Paris.
A founder member of the New English Art Club, Clausen
became Professor of Painting at the Royal Academy
in 1906. His lectures at the Academy were published as Six
Lectures on Painting
(1904) and Aims
and Ideals in Art
(1906).
Clausen developed what became known as a semi-Impressionist style.
Most of his paintings were landscapes and scenes of rural life. He
was fascinated with the effects of light and his work often featured
figures set against the sun.
Clausen responded to the heavy losses on the Western
Front in 1916 by the painting, Youth
Mourning. Later in the war he was commissioned to paint
In the Gun Factory at Woolwich Arsenal.
After the Armistice Clausen became
one of Britain's most important artists. Knighted in 1927, Sir
George Clausen
died, aged ninety-two, in 1944.
| George
Clausen, Youth Mourning (1916) |
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