Clarisse Loxton Peacock, born Klara Féhér (died 2004) was a Hungarian-born artist, later styled Lady Dunnett. An admirer of the Italian

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

painter Giorgio Morandi, she was particularly known for her own still life compositions, though later in life also painted stylised human forms.

Life

Klara Féhér was born to a Jewish family in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, the daughter of Isobel Féhér. One source gives her date of birth as 7 May 1926, while other sources give her year of birth as 1928. Her ''Times'' obituarist reported her age at death as a "closely guarded secret", and she was later reported to have been 90 when she died in 2004. After study at

Budapest University Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population of ...

, Féhér came to

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

to study art, matriculating at

Bristol University , mottoeng = earningpromotes one's innate power (from Horace, ''Ode 4.4'') , established = 1595 – Merchant Venturers School1876 – University College, Bristol1909 – received royal charter , type ...

. In one interview she is said to have been eighteen years old when she arrived in England. She trained at the Chelsea School of Art. She went on to postgraduate study at Saint Martin's School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design. Féhér married the English buinesswoman Grantley Loxton Peacock some time before 1959. She sold her first paintings to the

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

and the

San Francisco Museum of Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern art, modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary a ...

. After her first exhibition in 1959, her paintings would appear in 17 shows in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. The

Salon de Paris The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

awarded her the Medaille d'argent. In 1968 her daughter Felicity married Sir Peter Osborne, 17th Baronet: their eldest son would be the politician and newspaper editor George Osborne. In the mid-1970s Clarisse Loxton Peacock commuted between the family house in

Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...

and Paris, where her husband was working. He died in 1979, and she married Sir Anthony Grover, the Chairman of

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. Sir Anthony died in 1981, and in 1983 she married Sir

James Dunnett Sir Ludovic James Dunnett, GCB, CMG (12 February 1914 – 30 December 1997) was an English civil servant. Born in India, he was the son of Sir James Macdonald Dunnett, a senior official in the Indian Civil Service. He grew up in Edinburgh before ...

. Her last exhibition was in 1996. After her third husband died in 1997, she gave up painting, no longer feeling she could keep standing to paint. She died on 24 July 2004.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Loxton Peacock, Clarisse 1926 births 2004 deaths People from Budapest Hungarian emigrants to England Hungarian artists British artists