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Clara Klinghoffer
(1900 - 1970)
The Artist’s Sister, 1919
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Clara Klinghoffer (1900 - 1970)
Signed and dated
Oil on canvas, 30 1/2 x 25 5/8 in. (77 x 55 cm.)
Size:
Height – 77cm
Width – 55cm
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist’s son
This painting depicts Rose, one of Clara’s six sisters and a favourite
model of Jacob Epstein, noted for her flaming red hair (see Liss Fine
Art, 2004, cat. no. 9). It was undertaken whilst Klinghoffer was in her
penultimate year at the Slade. ‘I consider Klinghoffer,‘ Epstein later
wrote, ‘an artist of great talent – a painter and draughtswoman of the
first order.. . As a draughtswoman her understanding of form places her
in the very first rank of draughtswomen in the world‘ (30.3.39,
copyright: Visible Ink Incorporated).
Clara Klinghoffer emigrated from Austria to England with
her family in 1903. She studied art at the John Cass Institute
in Aldgate and the Central School of Arts and Crafts before
enrolling at the Slade School of Fine Art (1918’20).
Gaining immediate critical acclaim at a remarkably young
age with her first solo exhibition, held at the Hampstead Gallery
in 1919, she exhibited widely in the UK, Europe and North
America in the ensuing years, including at the 1924 Venice
Biennale, and the Redfern Gallery (1925) and RA (1933) in
London. She also travelled extensively throughout her life,
moving to Amsterdam in 1929 and New York in 1939.
Much of Klinghoffer’s work is characterised by a focus on the
human figure, and she made portraits of many eminent sitters ‘
such as Sir Winston Churchill, Vivien Leigh and Isaac Bashevis
Singer ‘ notable for their relaxed, somewhat candid composition.
