Site Updates

August 2020

• Converted site to new format.

July 2020

• Added site content/navigation to the 'home' page for easier navigation for cellphone users.  

March 2020

• A wonderful article about TSC's home on Riverside Drive in NYC was written in February 2020, titled, "The Lost Thomas Shields Clarke House - 50 Riverside Drive", by Tom Miller. A hyperlink was added to TSC's Biography page.   

• Added an image of an inscribed book to TSC -- "A Mind That Found Itself ~ An Autobiography", by Clifford Whittingham Beers -- to the Scrapbook page.

April 2019

• A Fool's Fool is currently on view at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. 

February 2019

• Watercolor of Female Nude, Paris '91" found and add to the Paintings section. It sold at auction for US$275, by the William Bunch Auctions & Appraisals, on January 29, 2019 [On my birthday! Wish I had known of it before then.]

• Added a photo of a US sailor looking on The Apple Cider Press to the Sculptures section. 

• Found that the sculpture The Crystal Gazer also went by the name The Future. 

November 2018

• Replaced a dead-link.

• Added two more photos of The Apple Cider Press.

• Find-A-Grave Memorial of TSC -> HERE.

July 2018

• Added cover image of the American Home and Gardening (May 1909) magazine to the accompanying article located on the Scrapbook page.

• Replaced the image of "To Alma Mater" with a better one.

• Found a photograph of TSC's, "Morning, Noon, and Night". Although it certainly does not capture the stained glass very well, it is all that I've been able to find to date.  

• Added a couple of links in the Links section.

May 2018

• Tidied up the introduction page.

• Added Brush and Pencil article to TSC's biography page.

• Added an article, from The Illustrated American, about The Apple Cider Press on the Sculptures page.

April 2018

• Tidied up the Sculptures and Scrapbook pages.

• Added an image of another of TSC's sculptures.  

March 2018

• Added more information about the Bell for the U.S. Gunboat "PRINCETON".

• Replaced some photos with slightly better quality ones. Namely, TSC's studio in NYC. Added another photo of the Dewey Arch.

• Some auction updates on the main page.  

February 2018

• I updated the Introduction page and made some changes.

• Added newly acquired images to replace some of the inferior quality images of some of his work (both paintings and sculpture).

• A new image of one of TSC's paintings. Unfortunately, we don't know its title.

• Came upon an image of a silver Princeton University Sesquicentennial Medal on a wonderful website about Medallic Art -> Medallic Art Collector. Added to the Miscellaneous page.

• Updated the Biography page.

• Replaced and added more images of The Apple Cider Press to the Sculptures page. 

• Added more illustrations from St. Nicholas to the Miscellaneous page.

• FINALLY came upon a photograph of a pair of TSC's andirons! Knight and Lady. Added to the Miscellaneous page.

• Added a slideshow featuring some of TSC's work on the Introduction page.

• How is it the Princeton Art Museum hasn't any of TSC's work?

October 2017

• Added many photos to the Pinterest page of the photographic autochromes taken by Thomas Shields Clarke in 1910 while at Fernbrook. The photographs are stored at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Archives. You may see the photographs in slideshow fashion HERE.

• Added a better quality image of the medallion, "Discovery", and modified and updated the 1896 Princeton University Sesquicentennial Bronze Medal Medallion, on the Miscellaneous page. 

• There was a mention in The Berkshire Eagle, June 30, 2017, in an article titled, "A look at Edith Wharton's Lenox: Author Cornelia Brooke Gilder discusses her new book, how Lenox shaped Wharton's work," by Jennifer Huberdeau. The mention is as follows:

Q. How would you describe Edith Wharton's Lenox? Was she part of that whole Gilded Age group as people assume?

A. First of all, she would have never used the term Gilded Age. That is a sort of modern term picking up on the Mark Twain book 'The Gilded Age.' They just thought they were people living their lives. Lenox, during this first decade of the 20th century, was probably at its peak of fashionable society as a summer and fall resort. But it had quite a long reputation and its reputation was built on this literary coterie of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Fanny Kemble. But new writers and artists were coming like Daniel Chester French and an intriguing guy, Thomas Shields Clarke. There were many people who were just rich families, but they most always had interesting angles: hobbies, interests, collections. There was a lot of interest in breeding farm animals — cattle, sheep. There was a lot of interest in model farming. So it attracted a different type of person than Newport, where you had access to the sea. Here you could buy substantial tracts of land and farm on an experimental level. But they were also extremely cosmopolitan. People were running to the Lenox Library to read books in French. They were multilingual and spent great sections of their time abroad. 

January 2017

• Not really a site update. Just a note. TSC's cottage, "Fernbrook", was mentioned in a Boston Globe article addressing invasive plant species. Regarding Fernbrook, the following is written. "During the Gilded Age, the creeping vine was prized for its ornamental value on the columns and trellises of grand estates in Lenox like the Hotel Aspinwall and Fernbook, the summer home of the artist Thomas Shields Clarke, Guthrie said." The article can be read in its entirety HERE. 

• Also, currently, there are two Princeton University Sesquicentennial Medals up for sale on eBay. (Both overpriced -- $999.99 and $425.00)

• Question about article: "Thos. Shields Clark is represented by his well-known painting, quaintly attractive Japanese picture of Kooeri num la eiumcu uun-some." -- November 5, 1896, The Pittsburgh Press from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania · Page 4 A mispel of Japanese? Certainly forgot the "e" at the end of his name. 

• Added "Pairs of bronze andirons" to TSC's list of works (on Scrapbook page)

August 2016

• Came upon this beautiful photograph of TSC's The Apple Cider Press, by Jeremy Borkat. 

May 2016

• Acquired a photo "A Gondola Girl" to add to the Paintings page, from a private collection. 

• Acquired a photo of an untitled painting, painted in Tangier, 1895. Added to Paintings page.

• Added two new images; one each of Cupid's Sundial, and the Crystal Gazer on the Sculptures page. 

• Added a Pinterest page.

July 2015

• Added a photo of the Appellate Court Building to Sculptures page.

February 2015 

• The author of the article, The Artist's Garden and the Autochromes of Thomas Shields Clarke, Barbara Katus, replied to an email I sent her. A very nice letter. She sent me the following link which contains 107 photographs taken around Fernbrook.They were taken in 1910. https://www.pafa.org/thomas-shields-clarkes-autochromes 

• A blog, titled "the apple press sculpture in golden gate park", is an interesting read -- about TSC's "The Apple Cider Press".  

• Another of TSC's Princeton University Sesquicentennial Medals sold at auction this last week for $120.00.

• Added some of the photos taken from the Autochromes of Thomas Shields Clarke archives to the site --credited. 

• Added tree ornament to Miscellaneous page.

• Found the name of a sculpture in a newspaper article -- Crystal Gazer

January 2015

• Corrected a security issue that was in the Scrap Book page.  

  • Back in March 2014, I was contacted about TSC's daughter Alma. A wonderfully written article, titled "Till I've done all that I can… -- Alma A. Clarke's Memories of France" is currently a work-in-progress.

• Published this month -- The Artist's Garden and the Autochromes of Thomas Shields Clarke. 

August 2014

• Added more detail to Cupid's Sundial description.

December 2013

• Replaced some images with better quality ones recently acquired. 

• Added a new image of TSC to the Biography section.

September 2013

• An untitled still life, painted in 1891, of flowers in a vase. Sold at an estate auction in September 2013. Image added to Paintings section. 

July 2013

• I met the owners of the TSC painting of the camel caravan. (I added a more detailed image of their painting on this website.) And we viewed the painting, "The Dawn of a New Life", that is prominently displayed at the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

February 2013

• Added a photograph and a quote by TSC from the Trigentennial Record of the Class of 1882 in the Biography section. 

November 2012

• The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts website has made available online some of the sketches from a collection gifted to them by Cynthia Clarke. HERE is a link to the page. I will add some of them to articles on this site to fill in the gaps where the actual art is vacant, [Example; the stained glass window commemorating the Continental Congress].  

June 2012

• Added "Thomas Shields Clarke and The Landing of Carteret"  to the Scrap Book section.

• Added "Fernbrook: The Summer Home of Thomas Shields Clarke", from American Home and Gardening, May 1909 to the Scrap Book section, as well.

• Added the feature from the Princeton College Bulletin about the Princeton Sesquicentennial Memorial medal in the Miscellaneous section.

• Added "Color Studies of My Garden", by Thomas Shields Clarke, from Country Life magazine, August 1919, in the Scrap Book section.

• Added some information about Edwin Austin Abbey's "The Play Scene in Hamlet" in the Scrap Book section.

• Added some more details about his 'patriotic society' and The Tiger in the Biography section. 

• Added two enlarged photos from the Country Life magazine article of Fernbrook to the His Studios page.

• Added photo of Fernbrook garden featured in the book, Beautiful Gardens in America, by Louise Shelton. It's in the Scrap Book section. (Although the photo used does not show the splendor of the garden what-so-ever.)

• Added a pencil sketch of "Hyde Park" in the Miscellaneous section.  

• Added some minor details to a couple items, and a link to an article, titled Decorations for the Dewey Reception, found in the Sculptures section.

May 2012

• Replaced and added a couple photos of Fernbrook in the His Studios section.

April 2012 

• Added TSC's painting A Gondola Girl to the website. It is a black and white image from a book, and has some of the painting removed for room for text.

• Added the portrait of Thomas Shields Clarke in the Biography section, reproduced in The Collector and Art Critic Vol. 3, No. 7, May 15, 1905, by George M. Reevs. This was one of the portraits saved from the fire in the National Academy of Design, and was one of the membership portraits painted by Mr. Reevs. It is an admirable likeness and well handled. 

• Added article, An Artist's Florida, by TSC, in the Scrap Book section of this website.

March 2012 - Created this new website, highlighting the life and work of Thomas Shields Clarke. Transferred the material from the original website on Tripod to this new Google Site. Never looked better.  :)  

I added a new page, titled Scrap Book.  

Added link to Madonna painting noted in his Sherwood studio's reception room.  

There is still much more material I need to go through to add to TSC's biography.  

January 2012 - New painting found! The title is unknown. It was painted in one of his studios in 1886. 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 stablize the painting so that no more damage would occur.

February 2011 - Found a cartoon illustration TSC did for St. Nicholas magazine. And I have the announcement about the Princeton medallion. Both are found in the Miscellaneous section. Also, added more photos of The Apple Cider Press in the Sculptures section.

January 2011 - Another painting discovered online. A portrait of a seated lady wearing a white dress, holding a fan. It has been added to the Paintings section. 

December 2010 - I found a lot more information. And I have some better quality photos to replace some of the ones on the website, (of the studios in particular). It's going to take a lot of time to go through EVERYTHING again, (as it has been a while since I've been through the material). And, due to circumstances beyond my control, I'm very limited on time to devote to this at the moment. But, I'll do what I can. 

I am also very excited with what a fellow writer/researcher, Deborah Pollack, shared with me today. She has a beautiful bronze statue that TSC created whose photo I have added to this website.   

Added: a bronze statue of a young lady holding an orb, (statue to be identified), and better quality photos of the "Alma Mater" on the Sculptures page, and the 'Princeton Bell' on the Miscellaneous page. And added another new find, the bronze medallion, "Discovery," also on the Misc. page.