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James Clark was born 14 July 1812 in Chelsea, London, to James Lawrence Clark and Charlotte (nee Ambridge). He had two brothers and six sisters. James was baptised at St James, Westminster, on 7 August 1812, and was given the full baptismal name of James Lawrence Clark after his father. James Lawrence Clark senior (1771 - 1852) was a schoolmaster, but the census record of 1841 gives his occupation as "artist".
At the age of 22 James married Elizabeth London at Christchurch, City of London, on 3 September 1834. His occupation is not given on the parish marriage record. He is first noted as "animal painter" on the baptism record of his first child, Eliza, born 23 July 1837. At this time the family was living in Ashford Street, Hoxton. James and Elizabeth later had another daughter, Emily, and five sons: Samuel James, Albert, Charles Lawrence, Octavius Thomas, and Theodore Augustus. Samuel, Albert and Octavius became artists, Charles became a herald painter, and Theodore was a house painter and decorator. Eliza married a calligrapher named John Richard Collings, and became the mother of portrait painter Albert Henry Collings RBA. From 1858 to 1878 the family lived at 21 Walbrook Street in St Leonard, Shoreditch.
In 1859 Elizabeth died and James remarried on 22 March 1862. His new wife, Frances Mary Ann Parsons, was his sister's husband's sister. A year later Frances gave birth to her only child, James Albert. The family moved in 1879 to 67 Riversdale Road in Islington, where James taught his youngest child to paint. Together they worked as James Clark and Son, signing their paintings as such with their home address neatly written below the signature on the front of the work.
James Clark specialised in painting portraits of prize-winning pigs, cattle, dogs and horses. His 1858 painting of the Thorney Ox was also reproduced as a hand-coloured lithograph by Charles Moody of Holborn. It is likely that James obtained commissions from breeders showing their over-fattened livestock at the nearby Islington Agricultural Hall, which was also the venue of the prestigious annual Islington Horse Show. James also travelled throughout the country to paint farm animals. During the 1871 census he was staying as a guest at Abbotrule House, a large country estate in Roxburghshire, Scotland.
"The Thorney Prize Ox"
One of James' most successful paintings, still being reproduced today as a print, shows a carriage horse breaking out of its field to join a passing hunt. James, and subsequently several of his children, repeated this theme over and over. There are at least twenty-three different versions of "The Runaway Horse" still in existence. Another picture which also must have sold well for James is "Startled", a painting of horses running from a passing steam train. He repeated this theme at least three times.
James and his sons are known to have bought their canvases from Arthur Rayner. This London artists' supplier was also a picture dealer who would probably have sold work by the Clark family. There are no records of James having exhibited his work with the major art societies of the day. He continued to paint until his death on 2 March 1884 at the age of 71. He left his estate of £378 to his second wife Frances.
"Startled"
"Prize sows in a sty"
Signed James Clark Sen.
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