Clara Klinghoffer
(Szczerzec [Shchyrets], Ukraine 1900 - 1970 London)

Portrait of a Woman in Black, 1940

oil on canvas

signed lower left ‘C Klinghoffer/ 1940’

81 x 61 cm.
(framed 102 x 81.5 cm.)
in a period frame

Klinghoffer can loosely be referred to as a ‘Whitechapel Girl’, as a Jewish émigré in East London who knew and associated with the ‘Whitechapel Boys’, whose members included Mark Gertler, David Bomberg and Clara Bimberg, among others. As a young girl, Clara was spotted sketching customers in a corner of her parents’ milliners shop, and they were encouraged to send her to study at the Sir John Cass College of Art, before winning scholarships to the Central School of Arts and Crafts, and finally the Slade from 1919-1921.

When she was still studying at the Slade in 1920, Klinghoffer was hailed as ‘the girl whodraws like Raphael’, and immediately found grace and favour as a portraitist, with her first ‘One-Man show’ at the prestigious Hampstead Art Gallery, in May of that year, to rave reviews. The Jewish Chronicle noted that ‘Clara Klinghoffer... has clearly proved to be atruly great artist. Her drawings are very beautiful and quite remarkable for an artist scarcelyout of her teens. [She] has been influenced by the Great Masters Raphael and Leonardo... yether outlook is entirely Modern...’