Clara Klinghoffer by Domi Pila

Clara Klinghoffer

18 May 1900 - 18 November 1970

Clara Klinghoffer Introduction

Clara Klinghoffer moved as a child to England from Polish Galicia (modernday Ukraine) in 1903 and grew up in London’s East End. She was never given the same recognition, until recently, as her older contemporaries and fellow EuropeanJewish artists, such as the Whitechapel Boys including David Bomberg and Mark Gertler.

However, her precocious talent was quickly recognised: at only fifteen, Bernard Meninsky famously exclaimed of her work, 'Good Lord! That child draws like da Vinci'. After taking classes at the John Cass Institute and the Central School of Arts and Crafts, Klinghoffer enrolled in the Slade School of Art in 1918. Her first solo exhibition at nineteen, in 1920, prompted critical praise of her ‘dazzling radiance’ and ‘strongly individualistic and original’ work, which launched her artistic career.

Mainly working in portraiture, Klinghoffer sensitively depicted personality and atmosphere; her subjects included family members, individuals encountered on her travels, and fellow artists. This exhibition presents a selection of paintings and drawings, in part from Ben Uri’s own collection, as a celebration of Klinghoffer’s vital and historically overlooked contribution to British visual arts.

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Beginnings in the East End

From as early as ten years old, Klinghoffer showed striking talent in drawing, spending time sitting and sketching clients in her mother’s dress shop. Upon recognising her precocious skill, a client persuaded the Klinghoffers to enable their daughter to take art lessons, and they raised enough to send her to the John Cass Institute, Aldgate, in 1914. From there, she transferred to the Central School of Arts & Crafts (1915–18), where she met the Ukrainian-born artist Bernard Meninsky, a life-drawing teacher who became her mentor and had a lasting influence on her work. She subsequently became acquainted with many other established artists including Jacob Epstein andAlfred Wolmark, both of whom also became her mentors.

Klinghoffer found readily available models from her East End community and immediate family, particularly her six sisters: Fanny, Rose, Rachel, Bertha, Leah and Hilda. Her sisters modelled for her in their home, most frequently Rose (who also sat to the sculptor Jacob Epstein) and Rachel.

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Pen & ink

Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Fashion sketch from Clara’s childhood sketchbook, 1913 drawing

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East End School Girl, c. 1915 Oil on canvas

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Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Old Mr. Brodetsky Preparatory

Drawing,1918

Pencil sketch

Private collection. ©The artist’s estate

Old Mr. Brodetsky, 1918

Oil on canvas

Private collection. ©The artist’s estate

Klinghoffer often made detailed sketches in preparation for more significant works.

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The Slade and ensuing success

Having quickly established a reputation as the new ‘girl genius’, Klinghoffer gained a bursary to the Slade School of Fine Art (1918–20) under Professor Henry Tonks. While still a student, recommended by Alfred Wolmark along with her other mentors Jacob Epstein and Meninsky, she held her first exhibition at the Hampstead Art Gallery in 1920 (commonly misrecorded as 1919) which met with a flurry of critical praise and publicity.

Further solo exhibitions at prestigious London galleries followed, including the Leicester Galleries (1923, 1932), the Redfern Galleries (six times from 1919 until 1938) and Grosvenor Galleries (1922, 1924). Klinghoffer also exhibited with the New English Art Club (NEAC), the Goupil Gallery Salon, the London Group, the Women’s International Club, the Royal Academy and the Carnegie International.

Klinghoffer’s work was also included in exhibitions of 'Jewish Artists' (1923) and 'Jewish Art and Antiquities' (1927) at the Whitechapel Gallery, although she personally did not want to be confined by these labels.

A class of female students at the Slade in the earlier years of the twentieth century. Image credit: UCL Press

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Four Sisters (Rose, Fannie, Rachel, and baby Hilda), 1918

Oil on canvas

Private collection. © The artist’s estate

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A View of London’s East End Oil on canvas

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Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Sleeping Girl, 1919 Pen and ink wash on paper

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Ben Uri Collection. © The artist’s estate

The Daily Graphic hailed Klinghoffer’s debut exhibition in 1920 with the headline, ‘Girl Who Draws Like Raphael – Success At 19’. Her work was often compared to that of the Old Masters, causing Klinghoffer to become exasperated by 'endless comparison of Leonardo'.

Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Emma, c. 1920 Chalk on paper

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In the Dress Shop, c.1920

Oil on canvas

Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Considered to be picturing Klinghoffer's sisters Bertha and Leah.

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The sensitive use of brushstrokes to create an almost shimmering effect is typical of Klinghoffer’s style, exemplifying her skill as a portraitist. A similar technique can be found in 'The Girl in a Green Sari' (1926).

Portrait of the Artist’s Sister Rachel (Rachel in a Red Dress), c. 1920 Oil on canvas Ben Uri Collection. ©The artist’s estate

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Fannie, 1920 Oil on canvas

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Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Although Klinghoffer was quite diminutive in stature, just under five feet, this self-portrait portrays her as taller than she was in real life.

Self Portrait, 1920 Oil on canvas Private collection. © The artist’s estate

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Portrait of Rabbi Hertz, 1923 Oil on canvas

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Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Marriage and move to Europe

In 1926, Klinghoffer married the Dutch journalist Joop Stoppelman, moving with him to Paris in 1928; the couple moved again to Holland in 1930 with their daughter Sonia. While living in the Netherlands, Klinghoffer balanced family life, and the birth of her son Michael, with her continuing artistic success; she continued to show at the New English Art Club in London and became a member in 1933. In 1935, her painting ‘The Girl in the Green Sari’ became the first work by a female artist to enter Ben Uri’s permanent collection, and was exhibited in the gallery that same year

Image credit: Bonhams. © The artist’s estate

Portrait of artist’s husband, Joseph (Joop) W. F. Stoppelman, 1938

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The Old Troubadour was painted on Klinghoffer’s honeymoon in the South of France. The pair were near enough the Italian border to stroll into Italy, where they met a musician named Torquato Simoncelli, and convinced him to sit for a painting This was done at his home in five or six sittings; true to her habit never to show a sitter what she was doing before her study was completed, Klinghoffer had kept it out of Torquato’s sight.

On seeing the painting, he said, ‘Signora, allow me to say… it is a masterly painting. You are a great artist. This picture should be hung in a museum.’ Indeed, in the following year the painting was exhibited throughout England to high acclaim. Finally, it was displayed in the Royal Academy's 1933 Summer Exhibition, and shortly after purchased by the Tate under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest.

The Old Troubadour, 1926 Oil on canvas Tate © The artist’s estate

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The Girl in the Green Sari, 1926 Oil on canvas Ben Uri Collection. © The artist’s estate Pratima Devi (right), painter and daughterin-law of famous philosopher Rabindranath Tagore (centre)

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The near life size Girl in the Green Sari was painted in Clara’s studio. It is of Pratima Devi, daughter-in-law of the famous Indian philosopher Rabindranath Tagore.

Lucien Pissarro (son of Camille), 1932 Oil on canvas

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Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Heemstede Canal Behind Rudi’s House, 1932

Oil on canvas

Private collection. © The artist’s estate

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Baby in Italian Church, 1932

Oil on board

Private collection. © The artist’s estate

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My Sister Leah, 1933 Oil on canvas

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Private collection. ©The artist’s estate

Texas Ranger, 1938 Oil on canvas Private collection. © The artist’s estate

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Picturing Michael, the artist's son.

Gus, 1939 Charcoal drawing © The artist’s estate.

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One of Klinghoffer's last charcoal drawings before she left Holland.

America

In 1939, aware of the imminent threat of German invasion, Klinghoffer and her family left the Netherlands, stopping in London briefly before leaving for America. Some of her artwork, left in a storage unit along with some of the family’s furniture, was later stolen and assumed destroyed by the Nazis. Although the move saved their family, as many of their Jewish neighbours in Holland were murdered, transitioning to American life was difficult. Klinghoffer didn’t like New York at first, finding it loud, impolite, and impersonal. But things improved: she valued the city’s diversity and found subjects from all walks of life, continuing her practice as before.

However, her work progressively suffered from the post-war shift from an interest in figurative to abstract art. Although she held some solo exhibitions in 1941, 1951 and 1958, she found it hard to secure many more in her later years, and her popularity declined.

‘My quarrel with abstractionism is its denial of an existing harmony in terms of humanity. It is to abstractionists as if we are floating in a nebulous something. They reject 'our' world, have no longer faith in the past and wish to fashion a new world - a world that cannot possibly hurt them because they think they are its Masters. But it is a sterile world without vista, without hope.’

-Klinghoffer on abstract art in a radio interview with New York’s WNYC, 1951

Avenue, North

24th Street - 1930 Image credit: Geographic Guide 25

Park

from

Delma, c. 1948 Oil on canvas

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Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Self Portrait, 1955 Oil on canvas

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Private collection. © The artist’s estate

Klinghoffer painted a number of celebrated sitters, including Sir Winston Churchill, Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Vivien Leigh. This striking portrait of friend and fellow artist Orovida, a member of the Pissarro painting dynasty, depicts her against a playful background of still life objects, referencing the kinds of objects Orovida liked to include in her own paintings.

Portrait of Orovida Pissarro, 1962 Oil on canvas Ben Uri Collection. © The artist’s estate

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Erik and Barbara, 1965

Oil on canvas

ErikLaurence Grandson of Clara Klinghoffer

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Oil on canvas

Ruth Temple Niece of Clara Klinghoffer The Left-Handed Guitarist, 1965

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Later life and travels

Throughout the 1950s and 60s, Klinghoffer and her husband traveled frequently, spending a considerable amount of time in Mexico where her husband was writing a travel guide. She found Mexico a refreshing change from the difficult art scene in New York, with its vibrant landscapes and local people whom she could paint. Her final show was in the Mexican/North American Cultural Institute, Mexico City, in 1969

Traffic in downtown Mexico City, 1952

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Image credit: Buzzfeed/ Smith Collection

Oil on canvas

Bay at Acapulco, 1969

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Street in Taxco (Mexico)

Oil on canvas

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Rediscovery

Clara Klinghoffer had a richly varied life, spanning Eastern Europe to Manchester to the East End to Holland, to America, to Mexico, coming to hold four nationalities. Her career took her from working-class beginnings in London to a more comfortable life, against both a changing political landscape and art world.

Recently, her work was included in two 2018 exhibitions rediscovering neglected female artists: 'Prize and Prejudice' (UCL) and '50 50: Fifty Works by Fifty British Women Artists 1900-1915' (Mercer's Hall, London and Leeds University Art Gallery). She is represented in UK collections including Aberdeen Art Gallery, the Ben Uri Collection, the British Museum, Kettle's Yard, the National Portrait Gallery and Tate.

Her ‘rediscovery’ continues through the overdue recognition of women artists and will be included in an important exhibition at Tate in 2025. Her reputation will continue to grow as the early comparisons and praise she inspired a century ago are again being recognised.

‘I consider Clara Klinghoffer an artist of great talent, a painter of the first order…Her understanding of form places her in the very first rank of draughtsmen in the world.’ - Sir Jacob Epstein

‘If ever there was an artist who for some time has been unjustly forgotten, it is Clara Klinghoffer … While the temporary eclipse of her reputation was not, given trends in the visual arts, surprising, it is certainly lamentable.’ - Terence Mullaly in The Daily Telegraph, 1981

‘Clara Klinghoffer has a precious gift; the power of transmuting the facts of experience into the gold of expression.’ - J.B. Manson, curator of the TateGallery 1930 – 1938

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