Clara Ellaline Hope Leighton (1898 - 1989) was an English/American artist, writer and illustrator, best known for her wood engravings depicting English agricultural life. Travel in Europe nurtured an empathy for rural workers and their culture, which is reflected in much of her work. Two aspects, political and aesthetic, account for dual strands within Clare Leighton’s work - she is realistic in her portrayals of the hardships of the worker’s life, yet she delights all the same in the honest beauty of the worker’s task.
Read moreHer work is held in public collections around the world, including the British Museum in London, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Art Institute of Chicago. During her life, she also illustrated at least 65 books included books by Thomas Hardy, Gilbert White and Henry David Thoreau.
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