Graham Sutherland

Sir Kenneth Clark (1903 – 1983) was one of the most distinguished art historians of his generation. He became the youngest Director of the National Gallery in 1933 at the age of 30 and in the late 1960s with his television programme Civilisation, is credited with bringing art history to a new audience. During the Second World War, he was Chair of the War Artists Advisory Committee engaging artists such as Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland who was a particularly close friend. The present work relates to Sutherland’s portrait in oil at the National Portrait Gallery painted in profile mirroring the 15^th century Italian fashion (NPG 5243). Executed in the early 1960s, sittings were in Sutherland’s garden at Trottiscliffe, Kent from February 1962 to December 1964.

The first owner of the present work, Pier Paolo Ruggerini, was a great friend and patron of Sutherland's.