First Previous 1 OF 2 NextLast

Sir George Clausen

1 of 2 portraits by Sir George Clausen

Sir George Clausen, by Sir George Clausen, 1895 -NPG 3041 - © National Portrait Gallery, London

© National Portrait Gallery, London

Later Victorian Portraits Catalogue Search

Sir George Clausen

by Sir George Clausen
Pen and black ink on white paper, 1895
8 1/4 in. x 5 1/2 in. (210 mm x 140 mm) overall
NPG 3041

Inscriptionback to top

Signed and dated in black ink: ‘G.C.’ (lower left) and ‘1895’ (lower right);
with illegible pencil inscription along top and printer’s markings on each edge and back. On back, inscr. in faded brown ink: ‘George Clausen / Jany. 30th 1895’.

This portraitback to top

This drawing illustrates Walter Armstrong’s article in the Magazine of Art marking Clausen’s election as ARA, [1] and was probably produced for that purpose, at the request of the editor Marion Harry Spielmann. It is one of a number of sober, self-scrutinizing self-portraits produced throughout Clausen’s career. His guiding principle was to ‘paint a thing simply and as one sees it’, [2] and the observation made of the 1920 self-portrait (see ‘All known portraits’), that ‘it has written all over it the unswerving sincerity of the man which is implicit in every picture he has painted’, [3] may also be applied to the present work.

Dr Jan Marsh

Footnotesback to top

1) MA, 1895, p.401.
2) Gibbon 1905.
3) [Hussey] 1923, p.31.

Physical descriptionback to top

Head-and-shoulders to right, bearded, balding, with white shirt collar and tie, black jacket collar.

Conservationback to top

Conserved, 1981.

Provenanceback to top

Marion Harry Spielmann, forming part of his 1939 gift.

Reproductionsback to top

Magazine of Art, 1895, p.401.

View all known portraits for Sir George Clausen