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Clare Leighton
(1898 - 1989)
The original designs for Southern Harvest, circa 1941
Clare Leighton (1898 - 1989)
£4,750
Size:
Height – 10.2cm
Width – 7.2cm
1 in stock
Having previously made several lecturing tours of the United States in the 20’s and early 30’s, Leighton moved to America at the outbreak of World War II, and in 1945 became an American citizen. A teaching position at Duke University in 1943 brought her into contact with Professor Frank C. Brown’s pioneering effort to collect North Carolina folklore. Eventually, the project grew to seven published volumes, all of which Leighton illustrated. She received many honours and awards in America, but maintained strong links with England, representing Britain at the Venice Biennale as a superlative engraver.
New York is the setting for one of Leighton’s most famous prints, ‘Bread Line, New York’, 1932. A copy of the work (image below) is part of the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. ‘Farmer and Statue of Liberty’ is thought to have been produced for Clare Leighton’s ‘Growing New Roots’, 1976.
Clare Leighton attended the Brighton School of Art (1915), the Slade School of Fine Art (1921’23) and the Central School of Arts and Crafts. Despite her childhood nickname ‘The Bystander’, she became a hugely visible artist on both sides of the Atlantic, and her vast oeuvre includes engravings, paintings, bookplates, illustrations and stained glass. Her twelve plates for Wedgwood, New England Industries, 1952, are amongst her best-known work.
She exhibited with the SWE in London (1923) and at the 1934 Venice Biennale ‘ attaining full membership to the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers in the same year. She also made several tours of the United States, becoming a naturalised citizen in 1945. By the time of her death, Leighton had authored twelve books and made over 840 prints.
