Although known primarily for her work as a printmaker, Clare Leighton (1898-1989) also designed numerous book illustrations, bookplates, engravings, mosaics, and stained glass windows over the course of a long and productive career.
She received her early art training at the Brighton College of Art and also attended the Slade School of Fine Art and the Central School of Arts & Crafts, 1920-23 in London. At the latter she worked on engraving under Noel Rooke, making her first woodblocks in 1923. During the 1920’s and 1930’s she taught, exhibited, and made several lecture tours of the United States.
At the outbreak of World War II she moved to America, and in 1945 became an American citizen. Her work is held in the collections of the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.
