Luke Clennell (8 April 1781 – 9 February 1840) was a British

wood-engraver Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image or ''matrix'' of images into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and p ...

and painter.

Life

Clennell was born in

Ulgham Ulgham ( ) is a small village in Northumberland, England. It is known as the 'village of the owls'. History The name, first mentioned in 1139 as ''Wlacam'', is from the Old English ''ūle'' "owl" and ''hwamm'' "nook (of land)", and so means ...

near Morpeth, Northumberland, the son of a farmer. He was apprenticed to the

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

Thomas Bewick Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 17538 November 1828) was an English wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, and illustrating ch ...

in 1797. Between 1799 and 1803 he acted as Bewick's principal assistant on the second volume of his ''

A History of British Birds ''A History of British Birds'' is a natural history book by Thomas Bewick, published in two volumes. Volume 1, ''Land Birds'', appeared in 1797. Volume 2, ''Water Birds'', appeared in 1804. A supplement was published in 1821. The text in ''Lan ...

''. After completing his seven-year apprenticeship with Bewick he moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, 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 dow ...

in 1804, where he married a daughter of the copper-engraver Charles Turner Warren (1762–1823). Through his marriage he became acquainted with such book illustrators as William Finden and Abraham Raimbach. He gained a reputation as a wood-engraver, and in May 1806 he was awarded the gold palette of the

Society of Arts The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

for a wood-engraving of a battle scene. He subsequently gave up engraving for painting. In 1814 he received from the

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a commission for a large commemorative picture, ''Banquet for the Allied Sovereigns'', at the Guildhall, London. He experienced great difficulty in getting the more than 400 distinguished guests to sit for their portraits, suffered a mental breakdown, and spent some time in a mental asylum in

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. Clennell was one of the competitors for the prize of one thousand guineas awarded by the British Institution for the best finished sketches connected with the victories of the British Army in Spain, Portugal and France, the works to be submitted to the British Gallery in January 1816.Harrington, 1993. pp. 99–101. Thirteen artists submitted works, and Clennell received one of the premiums for his picture entitled ''The decisive charge of the Life Guards at Waterloo''. Clennell resumed work on the picture of the Allied Sovereigns in 1817, but suffered another bout of depressive mental illness, and his family found him throwing his palette and brushes at the canvas, "to get the proper expression." From then until his death in a Newcastle asylum in 1840 he was never well enough to work as an artist.Uglow, 2006. pp. 350–352. Luke Clennell00.jpg, ''A Wayside Inn'' Luke Clennell01.jpg, ''The Fair on the Thames'' Luke Clennell02.jpg, ''The Press Gang'' Luke Clennell - Baggage Wagons in a Thunderstorm - Google Art Project.jpg, Baggage Wagons in a Thunderstorm

References

Sources

* Bain, Iain.
Clennell, Luke, 1781–1840
' (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography). * * * Story, Alfred Thomas.
James Holmes and John Varley
' (London: R. Bentley, 1894). * Uglow, Jenny. ''Nature's Engraver. A Life of

.'' (London: Faber & Faber, 2006)

External links

Works by Luke Clennell
(Tate Online)
Launching the lifeboat
(1810 watercolour - South Shields Museum & Art Gallery)
18th-Century Blues: Exploring the Melancholy Mind
( Shipley Art Gallery) {{DEFAULTSORT:Clennell, Luke 1781 births 1840 deaths English wood engravers English illustrators English watercolourists 19th-century English painters English male painters People from Morpeth, Northumberland 19th-century English male artists