William Clark (26 June 1803- 11 November 1883) was a Scottish artist specialising in paintings of ships. His works are held in the
National Maritime Museum
The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the United ...
and other collections.
He was born in
Greenock
Greenock (; sco, Greenock; gd, Grianaig, ) is a town and administrative centre in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area in Scotland, United Kingdom and a former burgh of barony, burgh within the Counties of Scotland, historic ...
, near Glasgow, and lived there all his life. His father was a seaman, later a customs officer, and Clark was at first apprenticed to a house painter but established himself as an artist in 1830. In 1835 he was invited to paint the regatta of the
Royal Northern Yacht Club
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a ...
and was in 1838 elected to membership of the club. It has been said that he "was fortunate to live during the heyday of Clyde shipbuilding when commissions from owners and masters ensured a steady supply of work, enabling Clark to spend his career in his native town without having to seek patrons elsewhere".
![Beacon Arts Centre & clock tower](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Beacon_Arts_Centre_%26_clock_tower.jpg)
Galleries holding Clark's work include the National Maritime Museum, the
McLean Museum
The McLean Museum and Art Gallery (now officially the Watt Institution) is a museum and art gallery situated in Greenock, Inverclyde, Scotland. It is the main museum in the Inverclyde area, it is free to visit and was opened in 1876. Most notabl ...
in Clark's native Greenock, 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 ...
(Liverpool), the
National Library of Australia
The National Library of Australia (NLA), formerly the Commonwealth National Library and Commonwealth Parliament Library, is the largest reference library in Australia, responsible under the terms of the ''National Library Act 1960'' for "mainta ...
, the
Peabody Essex Museum
The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...
(Salem, Massachusetts) and the
Yale Center for British Art
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the worl ...
.
References
External links
*
1803 births
1883 deaths
19th-century Scottish painters
Scottish male painters
People from Greenock
British marine artists
19th-century Scottish male artists
{{Scotland-painter-stub