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Clare Leighton created timeless impressions of agrarian life in England and the American South for over six decades. Initially, Leighton's work seems to be unrelated to the two world wars and devastation she witnessed, instead reflecting the pastoral life of the era. But while Leighton's graphic work continued an idealized, nostalgic view of rural life, it was also a rebuttal of specific contemporary circumstances. Clare Leighton's imagery is laden with an intensely personal commentary on the foremost issues confronting the world in her time--war and mechanization, social and economic inequality, gentrification of the countryside, and spiritual poverty caused by societal ills. Leighton's imagery reflected a worldview that valued the universal nature of creativity and the common bonds of workers of the earth. Her prolific wood engravings can be found in at least 65 books including The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy. She also
wrote and illustrated her own books such as The Farmers Year (1933), Four Hedges (1935), Country Matters (1937) and Southern Harvest (1942). Clare Leighton's body of work is found in a number of private and public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City,
the Art Institute of Chicago, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Baltimore Museum
of Art, and in both the Victoria and Albert and The British Museum in London.
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Available Work
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Milking
wood engraving, 1926
6.5 x 4.5 inches |
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Click here to read Clare Leighton's biography
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