Paintings
A Fool's Fool
A Fool's Fool was Thomas Shields Clarke's first real success. It was featured in the Paris Salon in 1887. The painting is of a court jester with cap and bells, half reclining upon an anciently carved chest, while he teases with his bauble a fierce macaw perched on the back of a high chair. This picture was well received by the French critics, and first brought Mr. Clarke into notice as a strong and original colourist.
After being exhibited the following spring in New York with the Society of American Artists, it was purchased for the permanent collection of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.
This oil painting measures 39 1/2 x 83 in. (cm. 100.3 x 210.8)
The Dawn of a New Life
The Dawn Of a New Life - Newly arrived immigrants approaching the skyscrapers of Lower Manhattan from the painting by Thomas Shields Clarke. Taken from "Century Magazine". This painting was exhibited at the "Exhibition Stockbridge Casino", in 1913. The price was $3,500.00, the most expensive on the lot.
The Springfield Republican, September 14, 1913, wrote: "The biggest canvas is that of Thomas Shields Clarke, "The Dawn of a New Life," the foreground being the bows of a ferryboat, whereon are a number of immigrants released from Ellis Island, and facing across the dull-green waters of the East River the tremendous spectade of the waterfront of New York, with its towers of Woolworth and Singer and high buildings -the overwhelming prospected America at its chief port. It is majestically painted, but what it means to the immigrants is another question..."
This painting now rests in the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. It was donated by his widow in 1921.
Title unknown
This oil on canvas is dated 1897 and measures 103 x 78cm.
Title unknown
This oil painting is dated 1886, and is approximately 12" x 26". It is part of a private collection.
The title is unknown. It was probably painted in his studio in the Sherwood Building, in New York City. When the painting came into possession of the current owner, there was a fair amount of cracking and some missing paint on the sky and sand but the actual figures (camels and people) were in very good shape. It was professionally restored to stabilize the painting so that no more damage would occur.
The Night Market in Morocco
The Night Market in Morocco, as described in a Godey's Magazine, May 1885, article Artists in their studios, (shows) "A Moorish woman, enveloped in a heavy wool mantle, is seated upon the ground selling oranges and lemons; a basket of the ripe fruit lies upon her lap, while little branches with fruit hang upon the wall behind." Her children are nearby. This picture was painted in Morocco, and was first exhibited at the International Art Exhibition of Berlin in 1891, where it made a decided hit, and won for Mr. Clarke a diploma of honor; and the following year it had an equal success in the Paris Salon.
Further comments were made in "Brush and Pencil", Vol. VI, August 1900 No.5 "There hangs in the Art Club of Philadelphia a large picture by Mr. Clarke, called The Night Market in Morocco, not only a difficult problem in chiaroscuro but full of the most subtle color effects. The illustration will convey an idea of the arrangement of light and shade, good drawing and intelligent composition, but naturally, the charm of the painting is absent. The work has all the virtues of the impressionists, with none of the insistent vagaries, and is sound in every way."
The painting was bought by the Philadelphia Art Club. It is currently part of a private collection.
An untitled still life. Painted in 1891. Flowers in a vase. Sold at an estate auction in September 2013.
Image courtesy of Paul McInnis, of Paul McInnis, Inc., a full-service auction, and real estate brokerage company.
A Gondola Girl
This painting was featured in the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893. It is now part of a private collection.
Title unknown. Painted in Tangier.
The painting is part of a private collection.
Title unknown. Painted in Tangier, in 1895.
The painting is part of a private collection.
Title unknown. This is a watercolour of a female nude, Paris '91"
14-1/8" x 10-1/8"
Morning, Noon, and Night
This is a full-size cartoon for a 3-part lunette stained glass window, titled "Morning, Noon, and Night".
All in tones of yellow, it shows morning, noon, and night. The first represents the Guardian Angel of Childhood, with a symbolic sunflower in the hand: the second the Angel of Noonday, with spreading wings casting their shade over the child, and the third the Angel of Night, holding the child in her arms, and a poppy. Around are words symbolical of the twelve months.
[Source for the description: Morning Press, Volume XXXI, Number 93, 17 September 1892 | Source for the photograph: "A History of the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893" by authority of the Board of directors, ed. by Rossiter Johnson.]
Japanese Girl
Artist: Thomas Shields Clarke
Title: JAPANESE GIRL
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Size: 31.8 x 17.5 in. / 80.8 x 44.4 cm.
Misc.: Signed
Sale Of C. G. Sloan & Company: Sunday, March 24, 1991
[Lot 2816] Estate Auction