catalog text
OLIVER CLARE (BRITISH, 1853-1927)
A STILL-LIFE WITH LEMONS, PLUMS, GRAPES, PEARS, RASPBERRIES AND A STRAWBERRY
Oil on canvas | Signed lower right "Oliver Clare"
Item # 106LCJ12P
An intricate display of fruit arranged over the ground with a mossy backdrop interlaced with grape leaves and vines and clipped branches and leaves from the lemon tree, it is a marvelous display with Clare's usual attention to detail. His manipulation of light around the fruit is rich and effective, showing a light source off to the left against the shiny surface of the fruit. Typical of his stippled technique with an overall glazing to the surface. The scene is signed in the lower right corner in his typical script and is housed in an early giltwood frame.
ARTIST
Born to the still-life artist George Clare in 1853, Oliver Clare and his brother Vincent both pursued a very distinct and individual specialization in unusually precise, intricately detailed and finely finished still-life scenes, mostly of fruit and flowers. Together with his brother, Oliver studied under his father and developed heavily on the intricate textured stippling techniques of George Clare; he is generally considered to be the best painter from the Clare family. He exhibited extensively at the Royal Society of Birmingham Artists, showing no less than eighteen paintings there over the course of his career. While he spent most of his life in Birmingham, he spent the late 1870s and early 1880s living in London where exhibited between 1873 and 1883 at least two paintings the Royal Society of British Artists (Suffolk Street) and one at the Royal Academy. He further exhibited at the the Walker Art Gallery of Liverpool and the Manchester City Art Gallery.
Artist Listings & Bibliography:
- E. Benezit Dictionary of Artists, Vol. III, p. 1062
- A Dictionary of Artists who have exhibited works in the Principal London Exhibitions from 1760 to 1893, Algernon Graves, Kingsmead, 1973, p. 54
- Dictionary of British Art, Vol. IV, Victorian Painters: The Text, Christopher Wood, 1995, p. 100
Measurements: 12" H x 16" W [canvas]; 18" H x 22" W [frame]
Condition Report:
Relined on linen. Original stretchers. Surface tension of the canvas is good and presents with only light craquelure throughout. Under UV showing the light flare of the recent re-varnish, inpainting to the undersides of the plum and one raspberry, spots of inpainting here and there throughout (see images). Frame is early and perhaps the first frame for the painting with minor discolorations and edge wear, restored with gold paint at some point. Presents beautifully and is in excellent ready-to-hang condition.