Harriet Ludlow Clarke (died 19 January 1866) was an English wood engraver and stained glass artist.

Life

Harriet Ludlow Clarke was the fourth daughter of Edward Clarke, a London solicitor. Around 1837 she started trying to earn a living as a wood engraver, which was then unusual for a woman. Attracting the notice of the engraver

William Harvey William Harvey (1 April 1578 – 3 June 1657) was an English physician who made influential contributions in anatomy and physiology. He was the first known physician to describe completely, and in detail, the systemic circulation and propert ...

, she executed a large cut from his design for the ''

Penny Magazine ''The Penny Magazine'' was an illustrated British magazine aimed at the working class, published every Saturday from 31 March 1832 to 31 October 1845. Charles Knight created it for the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in response to ...

'' in 1838. With Harvey's support, Clarke earned a good deal of money, which she used to build model labourers' homes at

Cheshunt Cheshunt ( ) is a town in Hertfordshire, England, north of London on the River Lea and Lee Navigation. It contains a section of the Lee Valley Park, including much of the River Lee Country Park. To the north lies Broxbourne and Wormley, ...

. A friend of

Anna Jameson Anna Brownell Jameson (17 May 179417 March 1860) was an Anglo-Irish art historian. Born in Ireland, she migrated to England at the age of four, becoming a well-known British writer and contributor to nineteenth-century thought on a range of su ...

, she contributed some of the illustrations to Jameson's ''Sacred and Legendary Art'', as well as making engravings of classic paintings for ''

The Art Journal ''The Art Journal'' was the most important British 19th-century magazine on art. It was founded in 1839 by Hodgson & Graves, print publishers, 6 Pall Mall, with the title ''Art Union Monthly Journal'' (or ''The Art Union''), the first issue of 7 ...

''. In 1841, she and her sister Elizabeth (wife to the legal reformer Charles Henry Bellenden Ker) were depicted sketching from a balcony in a popular oil painting by Charles Eastlake.Michael Cohen, ''Sisters: relation and rescue in nineteenth-century British novels and paintings'', Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995, p. 36 Clarke also became a designer and painter on glass, studying at home and abroad to master the techniques, and helped by the leading stained glass painter

William Wailes William Wailes (1808–1881) was the proprietor of one of England's largest and most prolific stained glass workshops. Life and career Wailes was born and grew up in Newcastle on Tyne, England's centre of domestic glass and bottle manufacturing. ...

. About 1851 she executed a window, showing Saint Martin sharing his cloak with a beggar, in St Martin's Church, Canterbury, which was being restored by the Hon. Daniel Finch. From 1852 to 1854 she was commissioned by Henry Berens to paint two windows for the new church at

Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of Bromley and Greenwich. Before the creation of Greater London in 1965, it was in the ...

, and on Berens's death executed a further window erected by subscription to his memory. She executed for

the queen In the English-speaking world, The Queen most commonly refers to: * Elizabeth II (1926–2022), Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 1952 until her death The Queen may also refer to: * Camilla, Queen Consort (born 1947), ...

a large window in the church of North Marston, to commemorate a bequest to her majesty by Mr. Neald of an estate in that parish. The Rev. Robert Moore employed her to execute a large window in the north-west transept of Canterbury Cathedral, representing the history of Thomas a Beckett. Though she prepared full-sized colour cartoons for this, failing health prevented her from executing her designs on glass: the windows were put up in May 1863 by Mr Hughes of Frith Street,

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

. From this point onwards ill-health stopped Clarke's activity as an artist. There is another small memorial window by her in St Martin's Church, Canterbury.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* *''

Gentleman's Magazine ''The Gentleman's Magazine'' was a monthly magazine founded in London, England, by Edward Cave in January 1731. It ran uninterrupted for almost 200 years, until 1922. It was the first to use the term '' magazine'' (from the French ''magazine' ...

'', 4th series, 1866, i. 436 {{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, Harriet Ludlow Year of birth unknown 1866 deaths English engravers Women engravers British stained glass artists and manufacturers