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Clare Leighton
(1898 - 1989)
The original designs for Southern Harvest, circa 1941
Clare Leighton (1898 - 1989)
Size:
Height – 10.3cm
Width – 7.1cm
Edition of 50, Southern Harvest (New York, The Macmillan Co. , 1942)
Clare Leighton was an artist, writer and wood engraver, best known for her illustrated books recording English rural life (The Farmer’s Year, 1933, Four Hedges, 1935), and her recording of life in America where she emigrated to in 1939. Southern Harvest, 1942, comprised over 35 vignettes including Picking cotton, shucking corn, boiling sorghum, and harvesting tobacco – all part of the rich agricultural heritage of the South – was amongst her most important achievements. This was followed by an equally iconic England Industries,1952, (produced for Wedgwood). Together these two cycles of images amongst the most celebrated and poignant records of American rural life of their period.
Leighton would typically take several days to produce a wood engraving, painstakingly carving the image with special tools strong enough to incise into the end grain of the block, which was typically made of boxwood, sufficiently hard to allow for a number of prints to be made before any loss of sharpness.
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.
