Margaret Clarke, Irish, 1884-1961
Title: Girl Praying
Date: c.1925
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
45.5 x 40.5 x 1.3 cm
Signed: upper left: M. Clarke
Credit Line: Presented, Mr Leo Donnelly, in memory of Kathleen O’Brien and her daughter Mary Donnelly, 2019
Object Number: NGI.2019.40
DescriptionClarke portrayed her three children from infancy to adulthood, creating a visual record of their young lives. This painting depicts her eldest child Ann (1917-85). Ann Clarke, the Artist’s Daughter, later Mrs Bourke, c.1924 (NGI.4369) and Portrait of David Clarke (1920-2005), (NGI.2007.72) are two portraits of her children already in the Gallery’s collection. Girl Praying, a title given by its present owner, was hitherto unknown. Carla Briggs of UCD, who has written widely on the artist, has confirmed its authorship. Following the 2017 exhibition at the NGI, a number works in private hands have come to light, this being an example. The painting’s small scale suggests that it may have been a preparatory sketch for a larger finished work. The child depicted here looks to be blessing herself. Clarke used her children as models in a number of religious works. Mary Magdalen, 1927, shows her young son David as an angel appearing to Mary Magdalen. A number of Clarke’s religious works evoke El Greco and the Italian Mannerists, particularly through the range of human emotions and gestures depicted. The date of this particular painting is close to a large oil painting in the Gallery’s collection Bath time at the Crèche, c.1925 (NGI.4359). In that intriguing work she depicts her three children leading a procession of bathers in the background. Interestingly, the background grey colour and the signature, present in the upper left hand corner, is similar in both of these paintings.