Alice Des Clayes ARCA Ploughman With Horses

Alice Des Clayes ARCA

This work comes from a collection, mostly of pastel drawings, by Alice Des Clayes (1890–1968). Born in Aberdeen, Alice was the younger sister of Berthe and Gertrude Des Clayes, both of whom were also notable artists. She studied at the Bushey School of Art, then at Newlyn in Cornwall, and finally at Ambleteuse, where she worked with the distinguished painter and illustrator Dudley Hardy. Alice Des Clayes emigrated to Montreal in Canada in 1914, and became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1920. Later in life she returned to England and lived in Newton Abbot, Devon.

Alice Des Clayes is best known for her studies of animals, especially horses, and scenes of rural life. She experimented with a variety of media, working in watercolours, oils, pastels and coloured chalks. Her work in pastels in particular shows her to have been a highly skilled colourist, while the medium also allowed her to capture the immediacy of rural scenes quickly and with an economy of means. Many of her works show the influence of Impressionism, with their loose handling and use of intense colour.

Alice Des Clayes’s work can be found in several galleries, including the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario.