Graham Clarke (b.1941) - 1984 Etching Excelsior

Description

A very handsome etching with aquatint and hand colouring by the artist Graham Clarke (b.1941), entitled 'Excelsior', depicting a young girl baking with her mother on Christmas eve. Graham Clarke is one of Britain's most popular and best-selling printmakers, and has created hundreds of images depicting English rural life. 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.

This fine etching has been inscribed, editioned and signed in pencil below the plate line. Well presented in a card mount and modern wood and gilt effect frame, as shown.
On wove.

Condition

The print is in very good condition. There are a few minor marks and scuffs to the frame.

Size

34.5 x 41cm (13.6" x 16.1")
Framed Size: 55.5 x 66cm (21.9" x 26")

Artist Biography

Born in 1941, printmaker Graham Clarke was educated at Beckenham Art School, and then at the Royal College of Art where he specializes 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 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.