The Clique was a group of Victorian artists founded by
Richard DaddRichard Dadd was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule detail...
. Other members were
Augustus EggAugustus Leopold Egg 2 May 1816 in London, England – 26 March 1863) was a Victorian artist best known for his modern triptych Past and Present , which depicts the break up of a middle-class Victorian family.-Biography:...
,
Alfred ElmoreAlfred Elmore was a Victorian history and genre painter. He was born in Cork, Ireland, the son of Dr. John Richard Elmore, a surgeon who retired from the British Army to Clonakilty....
,
William Powell FrithWilliam Powell Frith , was an English painter specialising in portraits and Victorian era narratives, who was elected to the Royal Academy in 1852. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery London W10.-Life and career:...
,
Henry Nelson O'NeilHenry Nelson O'Neil was an historical genre painter and minor Victorian writer. He worked primarily with historical and literary subjects, but his best-known paintings dealt with the Indian Mutiny. Eastward, Ho!, dated August 1857 but exhibited the following year, depicts the British troops...
,
John PhillipJohn Phillip was a Victorian era painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He was nicknamed "Spanish Phillip"....
and
Edward Matthew WardEdward Matthew Ward was an English Victorian narrative painter best known for his murals in the Palace of Westminster depicting episodes in British history from the English Civil War to the Glorious Revolution....
.
They have been described as “the first group of British artists to combine for greater strength and to announce that the great backward-looking tradition of the Academy was not relevant to the requirements of contemporary art”.
Information about the activities of The Clique derives mainly from the reminiscences of Frith and a short essay published in the
Art JournalArt Journal may refer to:* Art Journal , 1941-present, published by College Art Association of America* The Art Journal, 1839-1912, London...
in 1898 by Gilbert Imray, a friend of the group.
The Clique was a group of Victorian artists founded by
Richard DaddRichard Dadd was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule detail...
. Other members were
Augustus EggAugustus Leopold Egg 2 May 1816 in London, England – 26 March 1863) was a Victorian artist best known for his modern triptych Past and Present , which depicts the break up of a middle-class Victorian family.-Biography:...
,
Alfred ElmoreAlfred Elmore was a Victorian history and genre painter. He was born in Cork, Ireland, the son of Dr. John Richard Elmore, a surgeon who retired from the British Army to Clonakilty....
,
William Powell FrithWilliam Powell Frith , was an English painter specialising in portraits and Victorian era narratives, who was elected to the Royal Academy in 1852. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery London W10.-Life and career:...
,
Henry Nelson O'NeilHenry Nelson O'Neil was an historical genre painter and minor Victorian writer. He worked primarily with historical and literary subjects, but his best-known paintings dealt with the Indian Mutiny. Eastward, Ho!, dated August 1857 but exhibited the following year, depicts the British troops...
,
John PhillipJohn Phillip was a Victorian era painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He was nicknamed "Spanish Phillip"....
and
Edward Matthew WardEdward Matthew Ward was an English Victorian narrative painter best known for his murals in the Palace of Westminster depicting episodes in British history from the English Civil War to the Glorious Revolution....
.
They have been described as “the first group of British artists to combine for greater strength and to announce that the great backward-looking tradition of the Academy was not relevant to the requirements of contemporary art”.
Foundation
Information about the activities of The Clique derives mainly from the reminiscences of Frith and a short essay published in the
Art JournalArt Journal may refer to:* Art Journal , 1941-present, published by College Art Association of America* The Art Journal, 1839-1912, London...
in 1898 by Gilbert Imray, a friend of the group. Both state that the group called themselves by this name at the time and that they formed a sketching club. Imray describes the aspirations of some members and explains that at their meetings they would all produce drawings on the same subject and ask non-artists such as Imray to judge the merits of the works.
They met together at the end of the 1830s and early 1840s. The group broke up in 1843 when Dadd became insane and was incarcerated after murdering his father. The others all became successful members of the Royal Academy of Arts (though O'Neil only became an associate member, not a full member). Their work was supported by the newly-founded
Art JournalArt Journal may refer to:* Art Journal , 1941-present, published by College Art Association of America* The Art Journal, 1839-1912, London...
.
Ideas
The Clique was characterised by their rejection of
academicAcademic art is a style of painting and sculpture produced under the influence of European academies or universities.Specifically, academic art is the art and artists influenced by the standards of the French Académie des beaux-arts, which practiced under the movements of Neoclassicism and...
high art in favour of genre painting, following the precedents of
William HogarthWilliam Hogarth was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from excellent realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral...
and
David WilkieSir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter.- Early life :Wilkie was the son of the parish minister of Cults in Fife. He developed a love for art at an early age. In 1799, after he had attended school at Pitlessie, Kettle and Cupar, his father reluctantly agreed to his becoming a painter...
. This was in line with their view that art should be judged by the public, not by its conformity to academic ideals.
In the 1850s most members of The Clique became inveterate enemies of the
Pre-Raphaelite BrotherhoodThe Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...
, believing their art to be willfully eccentric and primitivist. Frith and O'Neil wrote many attacks on Pre-Raphaelite principles. However Egg became a friend and supporter of
William Holman HuntWilliam Holman Hunt OM was an English painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Life and work:Hunt's intended middle name was "Hobman", which he disliked intensely...
.
Portraits of members of The Clique were commissioned by Patrick Allan-Fraser for Hospitalfield House in
ArbroathArbroath or Aberbrothock is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the council area of Angus in Scotland, and has a population of 22,785...
.
In the 1860s another group of artists with similar ideas became known as the St. John's Wood Clique.
Literature
- Cowling, Mary. Victorian Figurative Painting. London, Andreas Papadakis Publisher, 2001.
- Valentine, Helen, ed. Art in the Age of Queen Victoria: Treasures from the Royal Academy of Arts Permanent Collection. New Haven and London, Yale University Press/Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999.