Clarke's work has gained admiration for his revival of hand coloured prints in the tradition of Thomas Rowlandson. His famous 'arched top' etchings, with which Graham Clarke established a widely successful reputation in Britain and overseas, came to public attention in 1973 when he first exhibited in London at the Royal Academy of Arts Summer Show.
Born in 1941, printmaker Graham Clarke was educated at Beckenham Art School, and then at the Royal College of Art where he specialised in illustration and printmaking, and pursued his interest in calligraphy. With encouragement from Edward Bawden, Clarke began refining an individual aesthetic, printing traditional landscapes marked by a sense of locality and genre. Graduating in 1964, he benefited from the print boom of the decade and, with commissions from Editions Alecto and the London Transport Publicity Department, a promising career was launched.
The publication in 1969 of his first hand-printed "livre d'artiste", Balyn and Balan, won recognition from the most influential patron and connoisseur of the day, Kenneth Clark.
