Sir George Clausen RA, Study for 'Labourers After Dinner', ca. 1884.
Chalk and pencil on laid paper. 465 mm x 620 mm. © Photo: Royal Academy of Arts, London.
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Study for 'Labourers After Dinner', ca. 1884
Sir George Clausen RA (1852 - 1944)
RA Collection: Art
On this sheet are several studies for the male figure in the right foreground of the painting Labourers After Dinner (1884; private collection). The smaller of the two studies at top left is squared up for transfer. The studies reveal that Clausen altered the position of the man's left leg in the finished work. Below, is a rough pencil sketch of figures that presumably relates to the grouping of the composition as a whole.
From information in the 1881 census for the Childwick Green area and on the basis of the inscription on this drawing, Anna Greutzner Robins has identified the model for the figure as a 36-year old agricultural labourer by the name of William Smith.
Further reading
Anna Greutzner Robins, 'Living the Simple Life: George Clausen at Childwick Green, St Albans', in David Peters Corbett, Ysanne Holt and Fiona Russell eds, Geographies of Englishness: Landscape and the National Past, 1880-1940, Yale University Press, London 2002, p.12
Object details
465 mm x 620 mm
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