Florence Anne Claxton Sold at Auction Prices

FLORENCE CLAXTON (BRITISH C.1839-1879)

FLORENCE CLAXTON (BRITISH C.1839-1879) A girl with long flowing hair wearing a wreath  Signed, 'F. Claxton', lower right Watercolour and bodycolour 24.5 x 19 cm (9 3/4 x 7 1/2 in) Florence Anne Claxton (1840 – 1879) was an English artist and humorist, most notable for her satire on the Pre-Raphaelite movement.  Claxton also wrote and illustrated many humorous commentaries on contemporary life. Little is known of Claxton’s life; even her birth and death dates are uncertain. Her father, painter Marshall, trained his daughters, Florence and Adelaide, in his craft; Florence travelled with her father to Australia, India, and Egypt in the years from 1850 to 1857, while he searched for employment. In the later 1850s both sisters found work in the production of engravings for the popular press. In 1860, Florence illustrated Married Off: A Satirical Poem, by “H. B.” In 1858 Florence exhibited her painting Scenes from the Life of a Female Artist in the second annual show of the Society of Women Artists. This caricature shows a lively scene of art students copying pictures in the original paintings galleries of the South Kensington Museum. The artist, Florence Claxton, was a popular caricaturist who worked for many of the leading illustrated journals of her day. This drawing was published as a wood engraving in ‘The Queen’, an upmarket ladies newspaper, in 1861. It is a unique image of the galleries ‘in action’ at an early date. The piece also parodies contemporary debate over women’s art practice. Several stereotypes of the female artist appear. In the background is the strong-minded woman who has been de-feminised by her professional ambition (hers is the largest easel). To the right, two dilettantes wander flirtatiously about the gallery distracting the male students. An article in the ‘The Athenaeum’ in 1860 had commented that “If anyone will visit the South Kensington Museum on what is called a “Students’ day” he will find the galleries…crowded with men and women, when not engaged in flirting, copying the pictures of that collection” . In the following year, 1859, she signed a petition advocating the admission of women to the Royal academy Schools, and exhibited her Scenes of Life of an Old Maid in the Society of Women Artists show.