3-082-168 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Even-Song" - by George Clausen, A.R.A., 1895. Reproduction of a painting. 'By kind permission of Messrs. Boussod Valadon and Co. Mr. George Clausen, the newly elected Associate, adds a new strain of foreign blood to our very cosmopolitan Royal Academy. He comes of a Danish family - although he himself was born in London a little more than forty years ago. His first start in art was as a decorator in Messrs. Trollope's employment; but from 1867 to 1873 he continued to attend evening classes at South Kensington. At the end of his apprenticeship, on the advice of the late Mr. Long, R.A., he took entirely to painting as a profession, and was successful in obtaining a national scholarship, which he held for two years. His first exhibited picture was in 1876...From his devotion to peasant life, and his strong realism in its portrayal, he has been classed as a pupil of Bastien-Lepage, but beyond having had the opportunity of studying the gifted French artist's work in common with others, he had no special relation with him as student or companion. Mr. Clausen is foremost among English "pleinairists," [artists working in the open air] and in many ways his work goes beyond that of Bastien-Lepage.' From "Illustrated London News", 1895.