Katharine 'Kitty' Clausen

(New York 1886-1936 London)

Ibiza, c.1932

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 brushstrok