Kenneth MacKenzie Clark

Kenneth MacKenzie Clark (Lord Clark of Saltwood), 1903-83, English art historian. After working with Bernard Berenson in Florence, Clark was keeper of the department of fine art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1931-34). From 1934 to 1945 he was the director of the National Gallery, London, and thereafter Slade professor of fine arts at Oxford until 1950 and from 1961 to 1962. He became chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1955 to 1960. Among Clark's outstanding writings are two studies on Leonardo da Vinci, The Drawings at Windsor Castle (1935, with Carlo Pedretti) and Leonardo da Vinci (2d ed. 1952); a study of the paintings of Piero della Francesca (2d ed. 1969); Landscape into Art (1949); The Nude (1955); Rembrandt and the Italian Renaissance (1966); and The Romantic Rebellion (1974). His cultural survey Civilisation (1970) is based on his popular lecture series for television.

Bibliography: See biography by M. Secrest (1985); bibliography, ed. by R. M. Slythe (rev. ed. 1971).

Clark, Kenneth ( Lord Clark of Saltwood) (1903–83). British art historian, administrator, patron, and collector, born into a wealthy family whose fortune had been made in thread-manufacturing: ‘My parents belonged to a section of society known as “the idle rich”, and although, in that golden age, many people were richer, there can have been few who were idler.’ After working as assistant to Berenson in Florence, he was keeper of fine art at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (1931–3), then director of the National Gallery, London (1934–45), and at the same time Surveyor of the King's Pictures (1934–44). Clark also served on numerous boards and committees and was chairman of the Arts Council (1953–60) and of the Independent Television Authority (1954–7). He published more than twenty books, his forte being appreciation and interpretation rather than exact scholarship, although his monographs on Leonardo da Vinci (1939) and Piero della Francesca (1951), both of which have been issued in revised editions, still remain standard works. His other books include The Gothic Revival (1928), Landscape into Art (1949), and The Nude (1956). He regarded The Nude as ‘without question my best book, full of ideas and information, simplifying its complex subject without deformation, and in places eloquent’. A polished television performer as well as an elegant and stimulating writer, he did a great deal to popularize art history, most notably with his television series Civilisation (1969, also published then as a book), which was shown in over sixty countries. The part he played as a patron and collector (he inherited substantial wealth from his parents) is less well known, but was of considerable importance. He bought the work of Henry Moore, Pasmore, Piper, and Sutherland in the 1920s and 1930s when they were little known and helped to establish their reputations (he also made a regular allowance—in strict secrecy—to several artists), and during the Second World War he had a major influence as chairman of the War Artists' Advisory Committee (see Official War Art). His two volumes of autobiography—Another Part of the Wood (1974) and The Other Half (1977)—are highly entertaining, if not always accurate in detail, but some of the potboilers that appeared in his old age would have been better left unpublished.

Clark, Kenneth ( Lord Clark of Saltwood) (1903–1983). British art historian, administrator, patron, and collector, born in London into a wealthy family whose fortune had been made in thread-manufacturing: ‘My parents belonged to a section of society known as “the idle rich”, and although, in that golden age, many people were richer, there can have been few who were idler.’ He was educated at Winchester and Trinity College, Oxford (where he studied history), then spent two years working in Florence with Bernard Berenson, the famous connoisseur of Italian art. From 1931 to 1934 he was keeper of fine art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, then was director of the National Gallery, London (1934–45), at the same time holding the position of Surveyor of the King's Pictures (1934–44). During the Second World War he was chairman of the War Artists' Advisory Committee (see OFFICIAL WAR ART), and after the war he was chairman of the Arts Council (1953–60) and the first chairman of the Independent Television Authority (1954–7). In addition, he served on numerous boards and committees, and in particular was a key figure in the Contemporary Art Society, of which he was a committee member from 1937 to 1953. The part he played as a patron and collector is less well known, but was of considerable importance. He inherited substantial wealth from his parents and his purchases of the work of Moore, Pasmore, Piper, and Sutherland in the 1920s and 1930s helped to establish their reputations (he also made a regular allowance—in strict secrecy—to several artists).

Clark was a polished television performer as well as an elegant and stimulating writer, and he did a great deal to popularize art history, most notably with his television series Civilisation (1969, also published then as a book), which was broadcast in over 60 countries. Although his major books were on Renaissance art or on general topics (notably Landscape into Art, 1949, and The Nude, 1956), he also wrote on 20th-century art (for example Henry Moore Drawings, 1974) and he was editor of the ‘Penguin Modern Painters' series, founded in 1943. He did not care much for abstract art, however, summing it up as ‘somewhat monotonous, somewhat prone to charlatanism, but genuinely expressive of our time'. His two volumes of autobiography—Another Part of the Wood (1974) and The Other Half (1977)—are highly entertaining (see MANSON), if not always accurate in detail, but some of the pot-boilers that appeared in his old age would have been better left unpublished.