Harry Clarke
Harry Clarke was born in Dublin, the second son of Joshua Clarke who had come to Ireland from Leeds to establish a stained-glass studio and church-decorating business in 1886. Harry’s instruction in stained-glass began at an early-age as both he and his brother were destined to work in the family studio. In 1906 he began to attend night-classes in the Dublin Metropolitan School until a scholarship awarded to him in 1910 enabled him to study there on a full-time basis. www.whytes.ie He submitted entries to the National Competition in 1911, 1912 and 1913 and on all three occasions was awarded the only gold medal for work in stained glass. He soon persuaded his father to allow him to travel to London to pursue a career in illustration. At the end of that year he was awarded a scholarship from the Irish government which enabled him to travel to France. In 1914 Clarke married his fellow-artist Margaret Crilley. Back in London Clarke approached Harraps publishers and was commissioned to illustrate Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales. He went on to illustrate four more works for Harraps, including Poe’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination in 1919. Clarke first exhibited with the Arts and Crafts Society of Ireland in 1917 and remained actively involved in the organisation from then on. In 1915 he received his first important commission in stained-glass for the Honan Hostel Chapel in Cork. This commission firmly established his reputation. In 1921, Joshua Clarke died, yet his two sons were determined to keep the family business open. The work-load increased as they received important commissions, and in 1924 larger premises were sought for the studio. In that same year his series of panels illustrating Keats’ Eve of Saint Agnes won for him a gold-medal in the Aanoch Tailteann. In 1925, he was elected as a member of the RHA. A bad bicycle accident the following year caused a rapid decline in the artist’s health and, at his doctor’s insistence he went to Switzerland in 1929, hoping to find a cure for the tuberculosis from which he was then suffering. Meanwhile he continued to focus on his last great project - The Geneva Window, which had been commissioned by the Irish government for the International Labour Building of the League of Nations. The work was rejected by the government, although they still paid Clarke the agreed sum. After her husband’s death in 1931, Margaret Clarke bought the window back from the government and it was exhibited at the Hugh Lane Gallery for some years. However, in 1988 the work was purchased by a private collector and is now on permanent exhibit at the Wolfsonian Foundation, Miami. Examples of Clarke’s works can be found in institutions around the world, including the Victoria and Albert Museum and National Gallery of Ireland. His studio remained open until 1973. At the end of the 1970s a retrospective exhibition of his work was held in Dublin, Cork and Belfast. www.whytes.ie
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'The Year's At the Spring: An Anthology of Recent Poetry'
- Price Realised: €220
- Sale: 17 February 2004
- 0 by 0cm., by in.
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'Edgar Allan Poe, Tales of Mystery and Imagination'
- Price Realised: €200
- Sale: 17 February 2004
- 0 by 0cm., by in.
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'FAIRY TALES BY HANS ANDERSEN AND ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY CLAKE'
- Price Realised: €140
- Sale: 30 November 2009
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'FAIRY TALES BY HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN'
- Price Realised: €120
- Sale: 30 November 2009
- 25 by 19cm., 10 by 7.5in.
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'DUBLIN DRAMA LEAGUE PROGRAMME FOR "THE FOUNTAIN" by Eugene O'Neill'
- Price Realised: €100
- Sale: 11 December 2011
- 23 by 14cm., 9 by 5.5in.
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'Nicola Gordon Bowe, Harry Clarke: His Graphic Art'
- Price Realised: €100
- Sale: 12 June 2005