Kenneth Clark, Baron Clark (1903-1983), Art historian

Sitter in 25 portraits
Artist of 1 portrait
Art historian and museum director. Clark was born in London, the son of a textile industrialist in Paisley, brought up in Suffolk, and educated at Winchester and Oxford. He became Keeper of Fine Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1931-3) and, at 31, the youngest Director of the National Gallery (1934-45), and Slade Professor of Fine Art (1946-50). In 1939 he persuaded the Ministry of Information to keep professional artists out of the front line. He became a household name with the television series Civilisation (1969), which brought the history of western culture to a vast new audience. Knighted in 1938, he was made a life peer in 1969, when Private Eye called him Lord Clark of Civilisation.