Clara Klinghoffer

(Szczerzec [Shchyrets] 1900-1972 New York)

Salvatore, 1937

oil on canvas

signed and dated lower right ‘KLINGHOFFER/ 1937'

with remnants of a New English Art Club label, with the handwritten title 'Salvatore' just visible, and a later type-written exhibition label '236/ Clara Klinghoffer/ Italian young/ waiter/ (Taormina, Sicily)/ oil, canvas'

48 x 40.5 cm.

Exhibited

London, The New English Art Club Winter Exhibition, 1938, no. 227.

Literature

C. Baile de Laperriere, The New English Art Club Exhibitors, 1886-2001, vol. II, E.-K., Hillmarton Manor Press, p.348.

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 who draws 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 a truly great artist. Her drawings are very beautiful and quite remarkable for an artist scarcely out of her teens. [She] has been influenced by the Great Masters Raphael and Leonardo… yet her outlook is entirely Modern…’ 

Nonetheless, there was a time in the 1930s when she fell from favour, refusing to move away from her figurative roots. She had married a Dutch journalist, Joop Stoppelman in 1928, and the couple were spending their time between Paris, London and Amsterdam where anti-semtitic tensions were growing, ultimately leading them to move to New York. However, throughout the 1930s, in spite of political tensions, the young couple spent their summers holidaying in Taormina, Sicily, where they stayed in a small hotel with vistas across the bay. They became friendly with the owner, Ettore Silvestri, and his daughter Giuseppina posed for Clara, as did 'Salvatore', the young waiter at the hotel. He wears kohl around his eyes and could perhaps have been north African. We will never know more about him, but he evidently captivated the artist with his youthful beauty and slightly defiant gaze.