Self-Portrait as a Jockey, Wearing a Crois

License image

Margaret Clarke , Irish, 1884-1961

Title

Datec.1920

MediumWatercolour and graphite on paper

Dimensions

56.8 x 39.3 cm

Credit LinePurchased, 2007

Object numberNGI.2007.15

DescriptionThis eccentric self-portrait dates to the 1920s – the most fruitful period of Margaret Clarke’s career. She portrays herself in a jockey’s attire and cap, with a traditional Irish woven belt, known as a crois, around her waist. While echoing her teaching under William Orpen in her embrace of costume, Clarke creates her own playful and original mode of self-fashioning. Drawings have always allowed artists to experiment with their self-image with a fluency that cannot easily be matched elsewhere.

(Katie Buckley, Curatorial Fellow - Prints and Drawings, An Artist's Presence, 2025, Print Gallery)
Exhibition HistoryMargaret Clarke – An Independent Spirit, F.E. McWilliam Gallery and Studio, Newry, 15 September - 18 November 2017