Pollie Clarke (fl. 1893-1902)

Pollie Clarke was a pupil of Sir Hubert von Herkomer (1849-1914) who founded the Bushey School of Art in Hertfordshire in 1883. She studied at the school from 1888 until its closure in 1904, by which time Bushey had become a thriving artistic colony with a number of art schools at which Clarke taught alongside Lucy Kemp-Welch. Clarke exhibited pictures at the Royal Academy, The Society of Women Artists, Manchester City Art Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. Her works rarely come on to the open market but a similarly large scale Romantic, Arthurian inspired painting, The Embarkation of Elaine, was sold at Christie's, South Kensington on 26 November 2014.