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Margaret (1884) Clarke Sold at Auction Prices

Porträtmaler, Flower painter, Painter, b. 1888 - d. 1961

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    • MARGARET CLARKE (IRISH, 1884-1961)
      Nov. 12, 2024

      MARGARET CLARKE (IRISH, 1884-1961)

      Est: £300 - £500

      MARGARET CLARKE (IRISH, 1884-1961) MARGARET CLARKE (IRISH, 1884-1961) Forest signed 'M. Clarke' (lower left) pastel 18.5 x 14 cm. (7 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.)

      Chiswick Auctions
    • Margaret Clarke (1881-1961) Dublin Landscape Oil on board, 20 x 26.5cm (7.9 x 10.4'') Signed Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, label verso
      May. 29, 2024

      Margaret Clarke (1881-1961) Dublin Landscape Oil on board, 20 x 26.5cm (7.9 x 10.4'') Signed Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, label verso

      Est: €500 - €700

      Margaret Clarke (1881-1961) Dublin Landscape Oil on board, 20 x 26.5cm (7.9 x 10.4'') Signed Provenance: With Taylor Galleries, label verso

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke, RHA (1884-1961) "Stepped Foot Bridge, North Leinster," watercolour, approx. 29cms x
      Nov. 16, 2022

      Margaret Clarke, RHA (1884-1961) "Stepped Foot Bridge, North Leinster," watercolour, approx. 29cms x

      Est: €300 - €400

      Margaret Clarke, RHA (1884-1961) "Stepped Foot Bridge, North Leinster," watercolour, approx. 29cms x 41cms (11 1/2" x 16"), signed, mounted and framed. (1)

      Fonsie Mealy Auctioneers
    • Margaret Clarke (Irish, 1888-1961) Columbine Rests, c. 1923-1924
      Dec. 11, 2019

      Margaret Clarke (Irish, 1888-1961) Columbine Rests, c. 1923-1924

      Est: $20,000 - $30,000

      Margaret Clarke (Irish, 1888-1961) Columbine Rests, c. 1923-1924 signed Margaret Clarke (lower center) oil on canvas 44 x 36 inches. Exhibited: Dublin, Aonach Tailteann, Exhibition of Irish Art, 1924, no. 253 (Possibly) Royal Hibernian Academy, 1925, no. 62 Literature: "In Tribute to Thomas MacGreevy-Poet & Connoisseur of the Arts," Capuchin Annual, 1968, p. 298 Carla Briggs, Margaret Clarke, Royal Hibernian Academy, MA Thesis, University College, Dublin, 1994, p. 143, no. 60, pl. 64, illus. We would like to thank Niamh MacNally, Curator of exhibition Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 2017, for her assistance with research and cataloguing this work.

      Hindman
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)The Irish Farm Oil on board, 93 x 145cm (36½ x 57'')SignedProvenance: The original artwork for the Empire Marketing Board 1930 Irish Free State Butter poster.A young woman in a grey coat feeds farmyard animals in
      Dec. 04, 2019

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)The Irish Farm Oil on board, 93 x 145cm (36½ x 57'')SignedProvenance: The original artwork for the Empire Marketing Board 1930 Irish Free State Butter poster.A young woman in a grey coat feeds farmyard animals in

      Est: €12,000 - €16,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)The Irish Farm Oil on board, 93 x 145cm (36½ x 57'')SignedProvenance: The original artwork for the Empire Marketing Board 1930 Irish Free State Butter poster.A young woman in a grey coat feeds farmyard animals in the grounds of a prosperous looking farmhouse set against distant fields. This large painting is broadly painted and visible in parts through the paint is a grid of regularly spaced intersected pencil lines common in the squaring up system of transferring a design. The Irish Farm is Margaret Clarke’s original artwork for one of five advertising posters she was commissioned to design by the Empire Marketing Board (EMB). Established by the British government, the EMB (1926-33) promoted the sale of empire goods within the British marketplace and encouraged closer imperial economic relations. Its Publicity Committee oversaw the EMB’s advertising and media operations, including a major nationwide poster campaign. The EMB commissioned approximately one hundred poster series, each featuring five different posters promoting a linked theme. The artist-designed posters were intended to encourage the British public to buy empire products, including those of the recently formed Irish Free State, in the hope of increased reciprocal overseas purchasing of British goods.By in large the EMB commissioned British artists and designers to produce the artwork for the posters rather than native artists from the dominions of the empire. Clarke was one of only three Irish artists to produce Irish Free State posters for the EMB, the others being Seán Keating and James Humbert Craig. The sub-committee charged with overseeing poster commission, design and printing awarded her the commission in October 1929 following a review of examples of her work. They commissioned designs for five posters, three 60 inch by 40 inch posters and two 25 inch by 40 inch posters, as part of the EMB’s Industrial Series. This series featured the work of seven artists with each poster set displayed under the collective title ‘Empire buying makes busy factories’. Surviving correspondence between Clarke, the EMB and J.W. Dulanty, Irish Trade Commissioner and Irish representative on the Board, reveal complex discussions regarding the subject matter for the posters (1). Against a backdrop of sensitive post-independence Anglo-Irish relations, wider colonial issues, and the Irish Free State’s commitment to an ideology of rural self-identity Clarke had to balance the EMB’s agenda along with securing approval from relevant Irish government departments. The Irish Farm is Clarke’s only extant full-scale original artwork for one of her posters known to date (2). It served as the model for the commercial lithographic printers to produce the Irish Free State Butter poster. The EMB demanded a high quality in the printing of the poster designs and surviving examples of the corresponding poster show a faithful reproduction of this painting by the firm Waterlow and Sons Ltd, including the hens’ different feather patterns and colour-markings of the cattle. Intended to highlight Irish products imported into the British marketplace, the poster was captioned ‘In 1929 imports of butter from the Irish Free State amounted to 566,000 cwts’. Another of Clarke’s posters, captioned ‘Irish Free State butter, eggs and bacon for our breakfasts’, depicted the Irish farm products being enjoyed by a family at breakfast. Taken as a whole Clarke’s five posters illustrated the reciprocity of trade between the Irish Free State and Britain, and in keeping with that message two further posters promoted the British coal industry and its exports to the Irish Free State, while a central poster with a map of Ireland and Britain boldly reinforced the theme of mutual benefit with a caption ‘Every time you buy empire produce you help the empire buy from us’. Clarke’s posters were displayed around Britain in September 1930 in the EMB’s specially designed wooden-framed hoardings. The survival of advertising posters, like much ephemeral material, can be unpredictable. While full sets of Clarke’s posters are in the collections of the National Library of Ireland and The National Archives, Kew, The Irish Farm, as an example of her original artwork, is an important addition to the narrative of her EMB poster commission.Carla Briggs, November 2019.1) National Library of Ireland: Harry Clarke and Margaret Clarke Papers, 1860-19912) Also surviving are a number of pencil sketches in her sketchbooks (NGI) and a half-size oil study for The Irish Farm (current location unknown).

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Trees and Elder Trees
      Oct. 21, 2019

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Trees and Elder Trees

      Est: €2,000 - €3,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Trees and Elder Trees oil on canvas signed lower left and titled verso h:53.50  w:35.50 cm. Provenance: Private Collection In this small but fine landscape, Clarke captures the colour and freshness of a wooded hillside. In the middle distance, dark evergreen trees rear skywards, while in the foreground the brighter splash of alder trees, with white blossom, adds a dash of bright colour to the composition. In the background blue hills are visible, silhouetted against a white cloudy sky. Born in Newry, Co. Down in 1884 and a student of William Orpen at the Metropolitan School of Art in the first years of the twentieth century, Margaret Clarke (neé Crilley) has been rediscovered in recent years as one of Ireland's foremost painters of that period. Orpen had a high regard for her draughtsmanship and regarded her as one of his best pupils. Among her fellow students were Ethel Rhind, Harry Clarke (who she was to marry) and James Sleator. On a visit to Inis Oirr in 1914, along with fellow students, she drew some of the ancient monuments on the island. Her portrait of her sister, Robin Redbreast now in the Ulster Museum, is one of her finest works. She first exhibited at the RHA in 1913 and continued to show at the Academy throughout her life. After her marriage to Harry Clarke in 1914, the raising of three children occupied much of her time but she continued to paint, including portraits of her family, and of the interiors of the family home in North Frederick Street in Dublin. Her portrait of Lennox Robinson is in the Crawford Art Gallery. She also painted portraits of her husband Harry Clarke, even as his health deteriorated due to tuberculosis. Some of her paintings were complex allegories of life, notably Strindbergian, a work dating from 1927 (Ulster Museum). In 1930 Clarke was commissioned to create five poster designs for the Empire Marketing Board, and after her husband's death the following year, she took over the running of the stained glass studios in North Frederick Street. She also continued to paint however and had a second solo exhibition in 1939, which included portraits and landscapes. A founding member of the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943, she was open to newer developments in art, including abstraction: she helped organise the Evie Hone retrospective of 1958 and was cataloguing the works of Mainie Jellett when she died in 1961. Peter Murray, September 2019

      Morgan O'Driscoll
    • Margaret Clarke (née Crilley) RHA (1888-1961) DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF TWO GIRLS
      Mar. 04, 2019

      Margaret Clarke (née Crilley) RHA (1888-1961) DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF TWO GIRLS

      Est: €20,000 - €30,000

      Margaret Clarke (née Crilley) RHA (1888-1961) DOUBLE PORTRAIT OF TWO GIRLS

      Whyte's
    • Margaret Clarke (née Crilley) RHA (1888-1961) SELF PORTRAIT, c.1914
      Nov. 26, 2018

      Margaret Clarke (née Crilley) RHA (1888-1961) SELF PORTRAIT, c.1914

      Est: €20,000 - €30,000

      signed [M. Crilley] lower left; with typed Pyms Gallery and National Gallery of Ireland exhibition labels on reverse

      Whyte's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Portrait of the Artist Dermod O'Brien PRHA in his StudioOil on canvas, 125 x 100cm (49¼ x 39¼'')Signed and dated 1934Exhibited: 'Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit', F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge September/
      Mar. 27, 2018

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Portrait of the Artist Dermod O'Brien PRHA in his StudioOil on canvas, 125 x 100cm (49¼ x 39¼'')Signed and dated 1934Exhibited: 'Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit', F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge September/

      Est: €5,000 - €7,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Portrait of the Artist Dermod O'Brien PRHA in his StudioOil on canvas, 125 x 100cm (49¼ x 39¼'')Signed and dated 1934Exhibited: 'Margaret Clarke: An Independent Spirit', F.E. McWilliam Gallery, Banbridge September/ November 2017Literature: Palette and plough by Lennox Robinson 1948 - this picture used as frontispiece. The frame has a plaque inscribed 'Presented to Dermod O'Brien PRHA by a number of Friends and Admirers, 13 December 1934'. The artist’s daughter, Brigid Ganly notes that the portrait on the easel is that of 'Edward Bannon' of Broughal Castle, Offaly but also of New York, Newport and Florida; which she thinks is one of the best portraits her father ever painted. It was presented by Mrs Banon to The National Gallery of Ireland.Margaret Clarke (1884-1961) was commissioned to paint this portrait of Dermod O’Brien by his many friends and admirers, who presented it to him as a gift in 1934. O’Brien was a prominent figure in Irish life in the early part of the twentieth century, involved in many organisations, and a fervent supporter of Horace Plunkett’s co-operative movement. His most enduring role was as President of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) from 1910 until his death in 1945. He was born in 1865 into a wealthy landowning family in Limerick that traced their ancestry back to Brian Boru. Though a Protestant and married to a Unionist, he was politically unaligned, committed to helping Irish society develop socially and culturally. He said of himself that his driving force was ‘the thing to be accomplished. It does not matter to me whether Ireland is saved by the priests, peoples, Orangemen or English...’Margaret Clarke and Dermod O’Brien had known each other for many years. When Clarke’s husband, Harry Clarke, died in 1931, O’Brien offered Clarke not only sympathy but assistance, should she need it. They had much in common. Clarke had been elected a full member of the RHA in 1928 - only the second woman to be so honoured. They had both been thoroughly schooled in the traditional, academic approach to art - O’Brien in Antwerp, Clarke in Dublin under Orpen - but they were generous, active supporters of less traditional, more radical artists, and sat together on committees such as the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. When O’Brien learnt that Clarke was to paint him, he wrote to her to say how very pleased he was. Elsewhere, he praised the sincerity, insight and characterization of her portraiture, and her ability ‘to search into the character of the sitter and get at the soul of him or her’.However, always the organiser, O’Brien began to issue instructions: he did not want to be shown as an important official in robes and chains, but neither did he want her to portray him as a plain citizen. Half-jokingly, he told her to make him ‘beautiful and sympathetic and dignified, and at the same time humble and diffident’. Clarke painted him in his role of artist, paintbrush in hand, standing in front of his easel, but not looking at it. He is formally dressed, bristling with the air of a man of authority poised for action, seeking the next challenge. At Clarke’s suggestion, perhaps to balance his obvious dignity with the requested humility, he donned a crios, the belt worn by peasants of the Aran Islands. According to his daughter, Brigid Ganly, herself an artist, this is the best portrait ever painted of O’Brien: ‘absolutely characteristic in the pose of the head, the alert glance, the quick humour of the mouth’. O’Brien remained a lifelong advocate of Clarke’s work, helping her to get commissions and advising bodies such as the Haverty Trust to purchase her paintings.Fiana Griffin

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Portrait of the Artist Dermod O'Brien PRHA in his StudioOil on canvas, 125 x 100cm (49¼ x 39¼'')Signed and dated 1934The frame has a plaque inscribed 'Presented to Dermod O'Brien PRHA by a number of Friends and Admi
      Sep. 28, 2016

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Portrait of the Artist Dermod O'Brien PRHA in his StudioOil on canvas, 125 x 100cm (49¼ x 39¼'')Signed and dated 1934The frame has a plaque inscribed 'Presented to Dermod O'Brien PRHA by a number of Friends and Admi

      Est: €8,000 - €12,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Portrait of the Artist Dermod O'Brien PRHA in his StudioOil on canvas, 125 x 100cm (49¼ x 39¼'')Signed and dated 1934The frame has a plaque inscribed 'Presented to Dermod O'Brien PRHA by a number of Friends and Admirers, 13 December 1934'. The artist’s daughter, Brigid Ganly notes that the portrait on the easel is that of 'Edward Bannon' of Broughal Castle, Offaly but also of New York, Newport and Florida; which she thinks is one of the best portraits her father ever painted. It was presented by Mrs Banon to The National Gallery of Ireland.Literature: Palette and plough by Lennox Robinson 1948 - this picture used as frontispiece. Margaret Clarke (1884-1961) was commissioned to paint this portrait of Dermod O’Brien by his many friends and admirers, who presented it to him as a gift in 1934. O’Brien was a prominent figure in Irish life in the early part of the twentieth century, involved in many organisations, and a fervent supporter of Horace Plunkett’s co-operative movement. His most enduring role was as President of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) from 1910 until his death in 1945. He was born in 1865 into a wealthy landowning family in Limerick that traced their ancestry back to Brian Boru. Though a Protestant and married to a Unionist, he was politically unaligned, committed to helping Irish society develop socially and culturally. He said of himself that his driving force was ‘the thing to be accomplished. It does not matter to me whether Ireland is saved by the priests, peoples, Orangemen or English...’Margaret Clarke and Dermod O’Brien had known each other for many years. When Clarke’s husband, Harry Clarke, died in 1931, O’Brien offered Clarke not only sympathy but assistance, should she need it. They had much in common. Clarke had been elected a full member of the RHA in 1928 - only the second woman to be so honoured. They had both been thoroughly schooled in the traditional, academic approach to art - O’Brien in Antwerp, Clarke in Dublin under Orpen - but they were generous, active supporters of less traditional, more radical artists, and sat together on committees such as the Irish Exhibition of Living Art. When O’Brien learnt that Clarke was to paint him, he wrote to her to say how very pleased he was. Elsewhere, he praised the sincerity, insight and characterization of her portraiture, and her ability ‘to search into the character of the sitter and get at the soul of him or her’.However, always the organiser, O’Brien began to issue instructions: he did not want to be shown as an important official in robes and chains, but neither did he want her to portray him as a plain citizen. Half-jokingly, he told her to make him ‘beautiful and sympathetic and dignified, and at the same time humble and diffident’. Clarke painted him in his role of artist, paintbrush in hand, standing in front of his easel, but not looking at it. He is formally dressed, bristling with the air of a man of authority poised for action, seeking the next challenge. At Clarke’s suggestion, perhaps to balance his obvious dignity with the requested humility, he donned a crios, the belt worn by peasants of the Aran Islands. According to his daughter, Brigid Ganly, herself an artist, this is the best portrait ever painted of O’Brien: ‘absolutely characteristic in the pose of the head, the alert glance, the quick humour of the mouth’. O’Brien remained a lifelong advocate of Clarke’s work, helping her to get commissions and advising bodies such as the Haverty Trust to purchase her paintings.Fiana Griffin September 2016

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Coltsfoot, Greystones Oil on panel, 46 x 56cm (18 x 22)SignedExhibited: David Clarke Retrospective, The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, Cat. No. 62 (label verso) where purchasedMargaret Clarke was born and educated i
      Mar. 23, 2016

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Coltsfoot, Greystones Oil on panel, 46 x 56cm (18 x 22)SignedExhibited: David Clarke Retrospective, The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, Cat. No. 62 (label verso) where purchasedMargaret Clarke was born and educated i

      Est: €400 - €600

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961)Coltsfoot, Greystones Oil on panel, 46 x 56cm (18 x 22)SignedExhibited: David Clarke Retrospective, The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, Cat. No. 62 (label verso) where purchasedMargaret Clarke was born and educated in Newry. In 1906 she was awarded a scholarship to the DMSA, where she became one of Orpen's star pupils, and won many prizes. Her fellow students included Beatrice Glenavy, James Sleator, Kathleen Fox, Leo Whelan, Patrick Tuohy and Harry Clarke, whom she married in 1915. Margaret excelled at portrait painting. Her dispassionate,searching eye enabled her to reveal the deep nature, the true self of the sitter, even when painting her own family. She was commissioned to paint many notable figures of the times,including Eamon De Valera, Dr. John Charles McQuaid and Dermod O'Brien (President of the RHA). Strong-minded and independent, she particularly enjoyed the artistic and intellectual freedom of genre painting such as The Ghost Sonate (Ulster Museum)' based on a play by Strindberg, or Bathtime at the Creche (National Gallery). Her outstanding ability as a draughtswoman can be appreciated in all her work. Like so many women artists she had to combine devotion to her career with the care of her family, and after Harry's death, with much of the responsibility for the studios on a greatly reduced income. Genre paintings became a luxury rarely affordable. In later life she loved to paint delightful, simple vases of flowers or scenes from the Wicklow hills. She died in Dublin in 1961.Fiana Griffin

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) ROCKS, NORTH COUNTY DUBLIN
      Nov. 30, 2015

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) ROCKS, NORTH COUNTY DUBLIN

      Est: €300 - €400

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) ROCKS, NORTH COUNTY DUBLIN oil on board with inscribed Taylor Galleries label on reverse h:13  w:10 in. Provenance: Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 1979; Private collection; de Veres, 6 March 2011, lot 184; Private collection Exhibited: 'Margaret Clarke Exhibition', Taylor Galleries, Dublin, 8-24 November 1979, catalogue no. 11 The Taylor Gallery exhibition in 1979 comprised 48 works in oil and 8 drawings among them Dublin and Aran Island scenes and portraits including two of her husband, stained glass artist Harry Clarke. For another work by this artist see lot 18.

      Whyte's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) AIRMAN OF INISHEER
      Nov. 30, 2015

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) AIRMAN OF INISHEER

      Est: €5,000 - €7,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) AIRMAN OF INISHEER oil on canvas h:30  w:36 in. Provenance: Frederick Gallery, Dublin; Private collection Exhibited: 'David Clarke Retrospective also featuring work by his parents, Margaret and Harry Clarke', Frederick Gallery, Dublin, 18-29 September 2000, catalogue no. 64 (illustrated) Margaret Clarke studied under William Orpen and in the company of fellow students Leo Whelan, James Sleator, Beatrice Glenavy and Harry Clarke, her husband from 1915. For another work by this artist see lot 107.

      Whyte's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Coltsfoot,
      Oct. 01, 2014

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Coltsfoot,

      Est: €800 - €1,200

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Coltsfoot, Greystones Oil on panel, 46 x 56cm (18 x 22'') Signed Exhibited: David Clarke Retrospective, The Frederick Gallery, Dublin, Cat. No. 62 (label verso) where purchased Margaret Clarke was born and educated in Newry. In 1906 she was awarded a scholarship to the DMSA, where she became one of Orpen's star pupils, and won many prizes. Her fellow students included Beatrice Glenavy, James Sleator, Kathleen Fox, Leo Whelan, Patrick Tuohy and Harry Clarke, whom she married in 1915. Margaret excelled at portrait painting. Her dispassionate, searching eye enabled her to reveal the deep nature, the ''true self '' of the sitter, even when painting her own family. She was commissioned to paint many notable figures of the times, including Eamon De Valera, Dr. John Charles McQuaid and Dermod O'Brien (President of the RHA). Strong-minded and independent, she particularly enjoyed the artistic and intellectual freedom of genre painting such as ''The Ghost Sonate'' (Ulster Museum)' based on a play by Strindberg, or ''Bathtime at the Creche'' (National Gallery). Her outstanding ability as a draughtswoman can be appreciated in all her work. Like so many women artists she had to combine devotion to her career with the care of her family, and after Harry's death, with much of the responsibility for the studios on a greatly reduced income. Genre paintings became a luxury rarely affordable. In later life she loved to paint delightful, simple vases of flowers or scenes from the Wicklow hills. She died in Dublin in 1961. Fiana Griffin

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) The Ascension
      Dec. 02, 2013

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) The Ascension

      Est: €4,000 - €6,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) The Ascension oil on board signed lower left & dated 1927 h:90  w:76 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, Cork

      Morgan O'Driscoll
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Portrait of Éamon
      May. 30, 2012

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Portrait of Éamon

      Est: €7,000 - €10,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Portrait of Éamon de Valera Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 40.5cm (20 x 16'') Inscribed verso 'sketch of Eamon de Valera - two sittings by Margaret Clarke' Provenance: The sitter and thence by descent to current owners Margaret Clarke was commissioned to paint Éamon de Valera in the autumn of 1928. De Valera had abandoned abstentionism and taken his seat in Dáil Éireann the previous year, an important year for Margaret Clarke also: she had been granted full academic membership of the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA), only the second woman to be so honoured. Dermod O'Brien, president of the RHA, was a great admirer of her portraiture: What I like about her work is her sincerity and insight and characterization. She does not content herself with setting a surface likeness but seems to search into the character of the sitter and get at the soul of him or her. (Extract from a letter to Mr Dwyer, Fitzwilliam Square, regarding a commission, July 1932) O'Brien recommended Clarke for a number of commissions, including this one from John J. Shelly of Winnipeg, Manitoba. Shelly had specific ideas regarding the work, which he put to Clarke in a letter now unfortunately lost. In a subsequent letter dated Nov. 1928, he was jubilant with relief, having just received long-awaited confirmation from Frank Gallagher of Fianna Fáil that de Valera was willing to sit for Clarke. Shelly seems to have hoped that the portrait would be part of a promotional campaign. He confided to Clarke that he 'thought his [Gallagher's] silence was one way of ''freezing me out'''. Gallagher was de Valera's media and public relations man, soon to be the first editor of the Irish Press. Obviously Shelly had reason to believe that he might not welcome outside interference. Perhaps, in the end, Gallagher had his way. Shelly had specifically requested that the painting should be exhibited at the next RHA annual exhibition. Clarke exhibited works there in 1929 and for many years thereafter, but her portrait of de Valera never appeared publicly. The painting is carefully composed to combine informality and status. A formally dressed De Valera is casually leaning on a bookcase with an academic backdrop of swathes of red fabric partially obscuring a green wall. Most uncharacteristic of Clarke as a portrait artist and of de Valera as a public figure is the hint of a smile on his relaxed face. Arguably, Shelly wanted the image of a civilized, benign gentleman to be used to help banish memories of de Valera's more violent past Margaret Clarke had one more encounter with de Valera: Harry Clarke's work known as the Geneva Window had been in storage in government buildings since his death in Jan 1931. She had tried to buy it back from Cosgrave. On taking office in 1932, de Valera ordered that she be asked if she was still interested in it, and noted that it had 'acquired' two cracks. During negotiations with Seán Lemass and others, Clarke argued strongly for some sort of favourable terms but de Valera and his cabinet insisted she repay the full purchase price of £450. Clarke was deeply disappointed and may well have regretted ever accepting Shelly's thirty guineas and endowing de Valera with a smile. Fiana Griffin

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke RHA ( 1888-1961) "Seascape at
      Dec. 08, 2010

      Margaret Clarke RHA ( 1888-1961) "Seascape at

      Est: €500 - €700

      Margaret Clarke RHA ( 1888-1961) "Seascape at Sunset" Oil, 8 1/2" x 11 1/2" (21.5 x 29 cm),signed. Provenance: The Collection of the late Sheila Tinney.

      deVeres
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888- 1961) "Mountain Goat"
      Dec. 08, 2010

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888- 1961) "Mountain Goat"

      Est: €2,000 - €3,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888- 1961) "Mountain Goat" Oil on canvas, 24" x 20" ( 61 x 51cm), signed.

      deVeres
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888- 1961) "Mountain Goat"
      Sep. 28, 2010

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888- 1961) "Mountain Goat"

      Est: €3,000 - €5,000

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888- 1961) "Mountain Goat" Oil on canvas, 24" x 20" ( 61 x 51cm), signed.

      deVeres
    • Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Aran Landscape Oil
      Jun. 02, 2010

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Aran Landscape Oil

      Est: €800 - €1,200

      Margaret Clarke RHA (1888-1961) Aran Landscape Oil on board, 17.5 x 18.5cm (6.75 x 7.25") Provenance: Collection of Raymond MacDonnell, Architect.

      Adam's
    • Margaret Clarke, R.H.A. (1888-1961)
      May. 14, 2004

      Margaret Clarke, R.H.A. (1888-1961)

      Est: £7,000 - £10,000

      Reclining Nude signed 'MARGARET CLARK' (upper right) and inscribed 'Margaret Crilley/nude reclining/drawn from life' (on the reverse) oil on canvas 33 x 39 in. (83.8 x 99 cm.)

      Christie's
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