- The Clique
:"For the band, see
The Clique (band) . For the book, seeThe Clique (novel) "The Clique was a self-described group of Victorian artists founded byRichard Dadd . Other members wereAugustus Egg ,Alfred Elmore ,William Powell Frith ,Henry Nelson O'Neil ,John Phillip andEdward Matthew Ward .They have been described as “the first group of British artists to combine for greater strength and to announce that the great backward-looking tradition of the Academy was not relevant to the requirements of contemporary art”. [Greysmith, David, ‘’Richard Dadd: The Rock and Castle of Seclusion’’, London, Studio Vistas, 1973, p.76 ]
Foundation
Information about the activities of The Clique derives mainly from the reminiscences of Frith and a short essay published in the
Art Journal in 1898 by Gilbert Imray, a friend of the group. Imray describes the aspirations of some members and explains that at their meetings they would all produce drawings on the same subject and ask non-artists such as Imray to judge the merits of the works. [Imray, J., "A Reminiscence of Sixty Years Ago", "Art Journal", 1898, p.202.]They met together at the end of the 1830s and early 1840s. The group broke up in 1843 when Dadd became insane and was incarcerated after murdering his father. The others all became successful members of the
Royal Academy of Arts . Their work was supported by the newly-foundedArt Journal .Ideas
The Clique was characterised by their rejection of academic high art in favour of genre painting, following the precedents of
William Hogarth and David Wilkie. This was in line with their view that art should be judged by the public, not by its conformity to academic ideals.In the 1850s most members of The Clique became inveterate enemies of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood , believing their art to be willfully eccentric and primitivist. Frith and O'Neil wrote many attacks on Pre-Raphaelite principles. However Egg became a friend and supporter ofWilliam Holman Hunt .Portraits of members of The Clique were commissioned by Patrick Allan-Fraser for
Hospitalfield House inArbroath .In the 1860s another group of artists with similar ideas became known as the
St. John's Wood Clique .References
Literature
* Cowling, Mary. "Victorian Figurative Painting." London, Andreas Papadakis Publisher, 2001.
* Valentine, Helen, ed. "Art in the Age of Queen Victoria: Treasures from the Royal Academy of Arts Permanent Collection." New Haven and London, Yale University Press/Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1999.
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