Sir George Clausen, RA, RWS (British, 1852-1944)


Landscape with silhouetted tree signed 'G.CLAUSEN.' (lower right)oil on canvas36 x 46cm (14 3/16 x 18 1/8in).
|ProvenancePrivate collection, UK.Although Hillside had passed to his son, Hugh, before his death, Clausen continued to use it as a base for landscape studies during the 1930s. These increasingly place greater emphasis on skies and cloud formations and the Essex terrain; here the view towards Clavering or Tilty is reduced to a mere strip at the bottom edge of the canvas. It is as though Clausen is re-affirming the centrality of Constable's ideals in all our attitudes to nature. In the present lot, that suppressed horizon is cut by a solitary tree, but even it is dwarfed by the majesty of the heavens.We are grateful to Professor Kenneth McConkey for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.