Katharine 'Kitty' Clausen 

(New York 1886-1936 London)

View in Ibiza, c.1932   *SOLD*

oil on panel

signed lower left 'Katharine Clausen'

26 x 35.5 cm.

Kitty was the daughter of the well-known artist, Sir George Clausen, and grew up painting in her father's studio. She studied at the Royal Academy Schools from 1908-1913, and exhibited variously at the Royal Academy, New English Art Club, Goupil Gallery, Beaux Art Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

Kitty married the Irish aristocrat and explorer, Edward Conor Marshall O’Brien (1880-1952), the first amateur Irish sailor to sail around the world. In 1932, the couple chose to base themselves on their boat, the Saoirse, in a characterful harbour on the picturesque island of Ibiza, which was then barely known. They lived economically on board, Kitty painting each day, and Conor writing books based on his seafaring experience, which Kitty duly illustrated. The present painting would have been painted by the artist ‘en plein air’, with quick and sketchy wet-in-wet brushstrokes.