1852 -1944 · British naturalism, rural world and light of work

Reapers, fields, repeated gestures and clear light place George Clausen among the great British painters of rural work in the industrial era.

George Clausen was born in London in 1852 into a family of Danish and Scottish origin. Thanks to a scholarship, he studied at the South Kensington School of Art then completed his training at the Antwerp Academy. His beginnings demonstrated a solid discipline of drawing and an interest in contemporary life. The discovery of Jules Bastien-Lepage and French naturalism encouraged him to leave the conventional picturesque to work as close as possible to agricultural workers. Installed in the countryside of Hertfordshire then Essex, Clausen encouraged him to leave the conventional picturesque to work as close as possible to agricultural workers. Installed in the countryside of Hertfordshire then Essex, Clausen encouraged him to leave the conventional picturesque to work as close as possible to agricultural workers. Installed in the countryside of Hertfordshire then Essex, Clausen encouraged him to leave the conventional picturesque to work as close as possible to agricultural workers. Installed in the countryside of Hertfordshire and then Essex, Clausen observed the seasons, tools and physical rhythms of plowing, harvesting or gleaning. The Reapers, painted in 1885, placed workers in a field almost without anecdote. The inclined bodies, the repetition of gestures and the summer light reflect the collective effort with a dignity devoid of emphasis. The touch remains precise, but the air and the sun begin to dissolve the contours, announcing its rapprochement with impressionism. Clausen participated in 1886 in the founding of the New English Art Club, created to offer a more open alternative to the procedures of the Royal Academy. However, he then joined the institution, taught there and became a painting teacher. His art evolved towards freer material and more sensitive atmospheric effects, without abandoning the countryside or the families who worked there. During the First World War, the death of his son-in-law inspired Youth Mourning, a meditation on mourning and the sacrificed generation. Ennobled in 1927, Clausen continued to paint landscapes, portraits and rural scenes until his death in 1944. His work linked social naturalism, the outdoors and the transformation of the British agricultural world. The "George Clausen" selection notably compares Les Faucheurs. His reading favors atmosphere.

Clausen paints the work without transforming it into an anecdote: the body, the tool, the season and the light are enough to give the gesture its dignity.