Clare Leighton Art

A striking illustrative print by the collectable English/American artist Clare Leighton (1898-1989). Taken from the artist's original woodblock series and printed for publication. Sm...

CLARE LEIGHTON (1898 – 1989) CLAM DIGGERS CAPE COD, 1946. Wood engraving as published by The Woodcut Society, Alexandria in the original folder. Signed i...

Dynamic mid-century figurative lithograph of a dancer by Clare Leighton (English, 1898-1989). Numbered ("33/50"), titled ("The Dance"), and signed ("Clare Leighton") along the lower edge. Circa 1947-57. Presented in a new gray-blue mat. Image size: 7.88"H x 5.88"W Clare Leighton (English, 1898-1989) was born in London on 12 April 1898, the daughter of Robert Leighton (1858–1934) and Marie Connor Leighton (1865–1941), both authors. Clare lived her early life in the shadow of her older brother, Roland - her mother's favorite; the family's rather callous nickname for Clare was "the bystander." Even so, her early efforts at painting were encouraged by her parents and her uncle Jack Leighton, an artist and illustrator. In 1915, Leighton began formal studies at the Brighton College of Art and later trained at the Slade School of Fine Art (1921–23) and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, where she studied wood engraving under Noel Rooke. After completing her studies, Leighton took time to travel through Europe, stopping in Italy, France, and the Balkans. She sketched landscapes and lower-class workers, developing an affinity for portraying rural life. During the late 1920s and 1930s, Leighton visited the United States on a number of lecture tours, emigrating to the US in 1939. She lived in Baltimore for a while and became friends with H. L. Mencken. Leighton became a naturalized citizen in 1945. From 1943 to 1945 she was a member of the Department of Art, Aesthetics, and Music at Duke University. In 1945 she was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member and became a full Academician in 1949. Over the course of a long and prolific career, Leighton wrote and illustrated numerous books praising the virtues of the countryside and the people who worked the land. She was the first woman to produce a book on wood-engraving (Wood-Engraving and Woodcuts, 1932). This played an important part in popularizing the medium. During the 1920s and 1930s, as the world around her became increasingly technological, industrial and urban, Leighton continued to paint rural working men and women. These included a 1938 poster design for London Transport promoting week-end walks in the countryside. In the 1950s she created designs for Steuben Glass, Wedgwood plates, several stained glass windows for churches in New England, and for the transept windows of Worcester Cathedral...

Corsican Washerwomen. 1934. Wood engraving. Boston Public Library 258. 8 1/2 x 10 (sheet 7 1/2 x 11). Edition 215, #192. Presentation print for The Print Club of Cleveland in 1936. I...