CLARKSON STANFIELD

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture -by Gautam Shah

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Clarkson Frederick Stanfield (1793-1837) was an English Marine scene painter. His one of the sons (George Clarkson Stanfield) is also a famous painter. He was apprenticed to a heraldic painter in Edinburgh. He went to sea in a merchant ship at the age of fifteen (1808). Later he started on a career of a theatre scene painter. Here he became known for the quality and speed of his work. But Clarkson throughout his life remained connected with the sea, painting in both oil and watercolour the marine scenes.

According to Ruskin, Clarkson was ‘the leader of the English realists’. He was considered Turner's nearest rival in depiction of cloud forms. He always worked on sketches, and rarely did an oil or watercolour from the actual site. He travelled to Italy, France, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, etc. He used slightly brighter tones to counter the mellowing effect of ageing on colours.

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