Design and Art Australia Online

sketcher and illustrator, was born in Smyrna (Ismir), Turkey on 1 October 1818, eldest of the two sons and two daughters of a Scottish naval surgeon, John Cuthbert Clarke and Jane, née Wilson. The family returned to England in 1834 when Cuthbert was aged 16, then moved to Edinburgh in 1839. Cuthbert appears to have left Scotland to travel and sketch in England from 1841 until he migrated to New Zealand in December 1848. In 1985 Sotheby’s London sold a folio of sketches by Clarke that included views of Brougham Castle, Rothesay Castle, Ullswater etc. dated 1841 to 1848.

He arrived at Auckland on board the Ennadale in 1849 and almost immediately appears to have been appointed an official artist in the government service. In that capacity he accompanied Sir George Grey’s party to Thames and overland to Taranaki on the New Zealand expedition of 1849-50, keeping an illustrated diary of the journey (BL). Included is a self-portrait showing him sketching Horowai [a Maori woman], which was drawn at Matamata in 1849. From April 1850 to September 1852 Clarke was employed in Auckland as assistant clerk in the Customs Office. He was prominent in Auckland’s public life, contributing his talents as 'artist’ to social events and as 'gentleman’ gracing them with his presence. In January 1850 he painted a transparency for the Queen’s Birthday Ball at the Artillery Barracks (which included Mount Egmont). He also did the decorations for the Masonic Ball – a large 'crayon’ (pastel) landscape of Smyrna. For the St Andrew’s Festival at the Masonic Hall in December, he showed his skill in a 'large and striking delineation of the Arms of Scotland, and also in a representation of the Martyrdom of St Andrew’ ( New Zealander 4 December 1850). Just before leaving NZ he illustrated John Logan Campbell’s manuscript Poenamo , although it was not published until 1881, then unillustrated (Clarke’s drawings are said to be known only from photographs inserted in the Auckland Public Library’s copy of the book). While staying at Campbell’s house he drew portraits of Brown and his wife, Jessie, who lived next door (destroyed).

On 29 September 1852, Clarke sailed for Melbourne in the William Hyde . He apparently proceeded directly to the Mount Alexander diggings (Castlemaine), then at the height of their fame. 'Clark Ismir’ drew a sketch titled The Commissioner’s Camp, Castlemaine, in 1852 , that was made into a lithograph by Edward Gilks (CAGHM), although this could have been dated retrospectively; his mother thought his initial Victorian destination was Bendigo when inquiring as to his whereabouts in 1857. He was certainly at Castlemaine on 15 December 1854, when he advertised in the Mount Alexander Mail – under the misprint 'Conrad Clark (Ismir, artist)’ – that he was 'prepared to make sketches of dwellings, stores, landscapes, or any other object of interest, local or otherwise’ in pencil, chalk or watercolours and gave his address as the Victoria Hotel.

At Castlemaine, on 17 April 1855, Clarke married Margarethe, known as Katty, Heizzer (or Heuser) from Frankfurt on Maine, in a Presbyterian ceremony. He was thirteen years older than his bride, who described herself as a minstrel. They had two sons (born 1856 and 1858). In November 1858 Cuthbert advertised a drawing class at the Mechanics Institution but it does not seem to have eventuated and he appears to have been almost destitute. Soon afterwards, the family was living in a tent. He applied for the position of Collector of the Electoral Rolls in March 1859, but was not successful. In March 1860 he was appointed caretaker of the Castlemaine Botanical Gardens and early in 1860 the family moved to a temporary dwelling erected on nearby Wattle Flat. Their stay was brief. Katty died in July and was buried in a pauper’s ('free’) grave. Cuthbert remained caretaker until after recording The Caledonian Games, Wattle Flat, Castlemaine (LT) – which took place in his gardens for the few days spanning 1860-61 – but resigned a month later, on 15 February.

By 1862 he was in Melbourne working as a press artist for the Illustrated Melbourne Post . At the same time he was carrying out commissions for the engravers De Gruchy and Leigh, for whom he drew and produced a popular lithograph, The First Cricket Match Played by the All England Eleven and Eighteen of Victoria 1 4 January 1862 . He also illustrated the firm’s publication on Burke and Wills (four pen and wash originals are in LT and others are known). His drawings appeared in the Illustrated Melbourne Post from October 1862 and March 1863, some posthumously. Most were of NZ subjects drawn years earlier (but worked up to more finished images in 1861-63), the exceptions being Campaspe Falls and The Opening of the Melbourne to Bendigo Railway (published 18 October 1863). His death occurred at the Melbourne Immigrants’ Home on 2 January 1863, when his two sons were aged six and four.

From the small legacy of works by which Clarke is known he emerges as essentially an illustrative artist, one of considerable ability. He worked variously in crayon, ink, and black and white chalk, often combining these with watercolour. The browning of the David Cox-type papers he frequently employed now gives a tonal starkness to some of his sketches, a dramatic emphasis particularly evident in what is probably his most graphic work, View of the Disastrous Fire in Mostyn Street, Castlemaine on Sunday 15 April 1860, by which Five Lives were Sacrificed (Pioneers and Old Residents Association, Castlemaine). Curiously, despite spending most of his Australian years on a major goldfield, his known work of the period reflects no particular interest in mining per se; instead his interest appears to lie in the general social scene. He had the habit of signing his work variously: C. Clarke, Cuth. Clarke, Cuthbert C. Clarke, often adding 'Ismir’, the Turkish name of his birthplace. This too is varied on occasion to C. Ismir or Clarke Ismir.

Writers:

Cusack, Frank

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011