Joseph Clayton Clark (1856-1937) - Early 20thC Watercolour Young Mr Wardle

Description

A charming caricature study in watercolour of a young Mr Wardle, one of the characters from Charles Dickens' novel, The Pickwick Papers. The artist has signed with their pseudonym "Kyd," to the lower right and the painting has been presented in a dark wood frame with layered grey and gold mount. There is an inscription at the reverse with the character's name. On paper.

Condition

The condition is typical for a picture of this age including some discolouration and foxing. The frame has surface scuffing.

Size

13.4 x 8.5cm (5.3" x 3.3")
Framed Size: 28.4 x 22cm (11.2" x 8.7")

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Artist Biography

Joseph Clayton Clark (1856/57 — 8 August 1937), who worked under the pseudonym "Kyd", was a British artist best known for his illustrations of characters from the novels of Charles Dickens. The artwork was published in magazines or sold as watercolor paintings, rather than included in an edition of the novels.

Clark had many occupations during his lifetime, including designer of cigarette cards and postcards, and as a fore-edge paint principally specializing in characters from the works of Charles Dickens. He worked for Punch for only one day and then as a freelance artist until 1900.

Clark's illustrations from Dickens first appeared in 1887 in Fleet Street Magazine, with two published collections appearing shortly after as The Characters of Charles Dickens (1889) and Some Well Known Characters from the Works of Charles Dickens (1892). Early in the twentieth century five sets of postcards based on his Dickens drawings were published, as well as seven sets of non-Dickensian comic cards.
From 1927 Clark earned his living from watercolor sketches, mainly of Dickens' characters, which he sold to and through the London book trade. Frederic G. Kitton referred to Clark in his book Dickens and His Illustrators (1890), by which time Clark's watercolors were already being bought by major Dickens collectors.
art from his Dickens work, "Kyd" also illustrated humorous series such as "Some Typical Newspaper Readers" (c.1900), "The Book and Its Reader", and "London Types". He also illustrated a series of 50 smokers for Gallaher Ltd.; this series was issued as a set of cigarette cards entitled 'Votaries of the Weed' in 1916.
In 1910 the British Museum acquired a collection of 598 drawings and paintings of Clark's Dickens illustrations, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, Charles Dickens Museum and the University of Texas at Austin each also have significant collections of Clark's Dickens illustrations.