Private
Collection
Collection
Clara Klinghoffer
(1900 - 1970)
The Artist’s Sister, 1919
Private Collection
Clara Klinghoffer (1900 - 1970)
Signed and dated Oct 1920
Oil on canvas, 42 x 24 in. (106.6 x 61 cm.)
Size:
Height – 106.6cm
Width – 61cm
Provenance: acquired directly from the artist’s son
Exhibited: Goupil Gallery Salon, November 1920
Literature: Daily Express, 9 November, 1920
This key early work by Klinghoffer was painted during her last year at
the Slade. The model was a customer of the Klinghoffer family’s
dressmaking shop.
Exhibited at the Goupil Gallery Salon in 1920 alongside works by
Augustus John, Laura Knight, Glyn Philpot, Matisse and Lucien Pissarro,
The Girl with Flowers was singled out for praise and Klinghoffer
declared to be the new ‘girl genius of the Slade‘ (Daily Express, 9
November, 1920).
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.
