George Clausen and the Picture of English Rural Life

A specialist in British, Irish and French Art at the turn of the twentieth century, Kenneth McConkey is the author of many books and articles. He trained as a painter at Hornsey School of Art in the late 1960s before turning to art history at the Courtauld Institute. After leaving the Courtauld he became interested in the French painter, Jules Bastien-Lepage and his British followers, the most important of whom was George Clausen. Back in 1980 McConkey staged a large exhibition of Clausen's work which toured from Bradford to Bristol and Newcastle upon Tyne art galleries, and to the Royal Academy in London. At the time he promised that one day he would write a book about this leading British Impressionist, little thinking that the production of George Clausen and the Picture of English Rural Life would become such a lengthy exploration involving extensive, painstaking research. McConkey's books include Edwardian Portraits (1987), British Impressionism (1989), A Free Spirit, Irish Art, 1860-1960 (1990), Sir John Lavery (1993), Memory and Desire (2002) and The New English, A History of the New English Art Club (2006). His extensively revised monograph on Lavery - John Lavery, A Painter and his World - was published by Atelier in 2010.