The Clique was a group of English artists formed by

Richard Dadd Richard Dadd (1 August 1817 – 7 January 1886) was an English painter of the Victorian era, noted for his depictions of fairies and other supernatural subjects, Orientalist scenes, and enigmatic genre scenes, rendered with obsessively minuscule ...

in the late 1830s. Other members were

Augustus Egg Augustus Leopold Egg RA (2 May 1816 – 26 March 1863) was a British Victorian artist, and member of The Clique best known for his modern triptych '' Past and Present'' (1858), which depicts the breakup of a middle-class Victorian family. Biog ...

Alfred Elmore Alfred Elmore (1815 – 1881) was a British history and genre painter. Life Alfred Elmore was born in Clonakilty, Ireland, the son of John Richard Elmore, a surgeon who retired from the British Army to Clonakilty. His family moved to Londo ...

William Powell Frith William Powell Frith (9 January 1819 – 2 November 1909) was an English painter specialising in genre subjects and panoramic narrative works of life in the Victorian era. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1853, presenting ''The Slee ...

, Henry Nelson O'Neil,

John Phillip John Phillip (19 April 1817 – 27 February 1867) was a Scottish painter best known for his portrayals of Spanish life. He started painting these studies after a trip to Spain in 1851. He was nicknamed John 'Spanish' Phillip. Life Phi ...

and Edward 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”.

Foundation

William Powell Frith - The Derby Day - Google Art Project

Information about the activities of The Clique derives mainly from the reminiscences of Frith and a short essay published in ''

The Art Journal ''The Art Journal'' was the most important British 19th-century magazine on art. It was founded in 1839 by Hodgson & Graves, print publishers, 6 Pall Mall, with the title ''Art Union Monthly Journal'' (or ''The Art Union''), the first issue of 7 ...

'' in 1898 by Gilbert Imray, a friend of the group. Both state that the group called themselves by this name at the time and that they formed a sketching club. 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 was incarcerated after murdering his father. The others all became successful members of the

Royal Academy of Arts The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House in Piccadilly London, England. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its ...

(though O'Neil only became an associate member, not a full member). Their work was supported by the newly founded periodical ''The Art Journal''.

Ideas

The Clique was characterised by their rejection of

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

high art in favour of

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre) is the painting of genre art, which depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity ca ...

, following the precedents of

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

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 The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), later known as the Pre-Raphaelites, was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossett ...

, believing their art to be willfully eccentric and

primitivist In the arts of the Western world, Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that means to recreate the experience of ''the primitive'' time, place, and person, either by emulation or by re-creation. In Western philosophy, Primitivism propo ...

. Frith and O'Neil wrote many attacks on Pre-Raphaelite principles. However Egg became a friend and supporter of

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism ...

. Portraits of members of the Clique were commissioned by Patrick Allan-Fraser for Hospitalfield House in

Arbroath Arbroath () or Aberbrothock ( ) is a former royal burgh and the largest town in the Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland, Angus, Scotland, with a population of 23,902. It lies on the North Sea coast, some east-northeast of ...

. In the 1860s another group of artists with similar ideas became known as the St. John's Wood Clique.

Gallery

File:William Powell Frith Dolly Varden 1843.jpg, '' Dolly Varden'' by

, 1842 File:Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879) - The Disgrace of Lord Clarendon, after his Last Interview with the King - Scene at Whitehall Palace, in 1667 (replica) - N00431 - National Gallery.jpg, '' The Disgrace of Lord Clarendon'' by Edward Matthew Ward, 1846 File:Edward Matthew Ward (1816-1879) - The South Sea Bubble, a Scene in 'Change Alley in 1720 - N00432 - National Gallery.jpg, '' The South Sea Bubble'' by Edward Matthew Ward, 1847 File:William Powell Frith - An English Merrymaking a Hundred Years Ago.jpg, '' An English Merrymaking a Hundred Years Ago'' by

, 1847 File:Drawing for the Militia.png, '' Drawing for the Militia'' by

, 1849 File:John Phillip (1817-67) - The Letter-Writer of Seville - RCIN 401188 - Royal Collection.jpg, '' The Letter-Writer of Seville'' by

, 1854 File:Henry Nelson O'Neil - Eastward Ho (1857).jpg, '' Eastward Ho!'' by Henry Nelson O'Neil, 1858 File:John Phillip (1817-67) - The Dying Contrabandista - RCIN 404562 - Royal Collection.jpg, '' The Dying Contrabandista'' by John Phillip, 1858 File:Oneil1859.jpg, ''Home Again'', by Henry Nelson O'Neil, 1859 File:Edward Matthew Ward (1816-79) - Queen Victoria at the Tomb of Napoleon, 24 August 1855 - RCIN 402019 - Royal Collection.jpg, ''Queen Victoria at the Tomb of Napoleon'' by Edward Matthew Ward, 1860 File:John Phillip (1817-67) - The Marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal, 25 January 1858 - RCIN 406819 - Royal Collection.jpg, '' The Marriage of Victoria, Princess Royal'' by

, 1860 File:Claude Duval (painting).png, ''

Claude Duval Claude Du Vall (or Duval) (c. 164321 January 1670) was a French highwayman in Restoration England. He worked in the service of exiled royalists who returned to England under King Charles II. Little else is known of his history. According to p ...

'' by William Powell Frith, 1860 File:Augustus Leopold Egg - The Travelling Companions - Google Art Project.jpg, '' The Travelling Companions'' by

, 1862 File:The Landing of HRH The Princess Alexandra at Gravesend, 7th March 1863 by Henry Nelson O'Neil.jpg, '' The Landing of Princess Alexandra at Gravesend'' by Henry Nelson O'Neil, 1864 File:William Powell Frith (1819-1909) - Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman - N01781 - National Gallery.jpg, ''Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman'' by William Powell Frith, 1865 File:William Powell Frith - The Marriage of the Prince of Wales, 10 March 1863.JPG, '' The Marriage of the Prince of Wales'' by William Powell Frith, 1865 File:Henry-Nelson-O'Neil Before-Waterloo 1868.jpg, ''Before Waterloo'' by Henry Nelson O'Neil, 1868 File:The Fair Toxophilites William Powell Frith RAMM.jpg, '' The Fair Toxophilites'' by William Powell Frith, 1872

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. {{DEFAULTSORT:Clique, The English artist groups and collectives 19th-century art groups 19th century in England