A Girls Head, Sir George Clausen

A Girl's Head 1886 Sir George Clausen 1852-1944 The model for this painting was Mary (Polly) Baldwin who was a maid at the artist's house in Cookham Dean. She features in several of Clausen's works from the 1880s. Many artists in late Victorian and Edwardian Britain were particularly influenced by Jules Bastien-Lepage, a French painter of sentimental rural imagery described as 'Impressionism corrected' by Emile Zola. His example is evident here not only in the subject but also in Clausen's use of square-ended brushes to block in his design. Clausen was a founder of the New English Art Club, but later became a senior figure at the Royal Academy and was knighted in 1927.