Kenneth Mackenzie Clark OM CH KCB (1903 - 1983)

Born 13 Jul 1903 in London, London, England

Ancestors

Died 21 May 1983 at age 79 in Hythe, Kent, England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Stephen Corkey [send private message]

Biography

Kenneth Clark OM CH KCB is Notable.

Kenneth MacKenzie Clark, Baron Clark, was a British art historian, museum director, and broadcaster. After running two important art galleries in the 1930s and 1940s, he came to wider public notice on television, presenting a succession of programmes on the arts during the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the Civilisation series in 1969.

Clark was born at 32 Grosvenor Square, London,^[1] the only child of Kenneth Mackenzie Clark and (Margaret) Alice McArthur. The Clarks were a Scottish family who had grown rich in the textile trade. Clark's great-great-grandfather invented the cotton spool, and the Clark Thread Company of Paisley had grown into a substantial business. Kenneth Clark senior worked briefly as a director of the firm and retired in his mid-twenties. The Clarks maintained country homes at Sudbourne Hall, Suffolk, and at Ardnamurchan, Argyll, and wintered on the French Riviera.^[2]

Clark was educated at Wixenford School and, from 1917 to 1922, Winchester College. From there he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Oxford, where he studied modern history. He graduated in 1925 with a second-class honours degree.

In 1927 Clark married Elizabeth Winifred Martin, known as Jane, (although her family often referred to her as Betty) a fellow student at Oxford, to whom he had been introduced by Gordon Waterfield, her then fiance. She was from an Irish family, born in Dublin, her mother was the first female member of any of the Royal Societies of Surgeons in Britain and Ireland, her uncle and grandfather had both been Members of Parliament. In 1928 their first son, Alan, was born, followed in 1932 by the twins, Colin and (Living Clark).

In 1929, as a result of his work assisting Bernard Berenson with a revision of his book "Drawings of the Florentine Painters", Clark was asked to catalogue the extensive collection of Leonardo da Vinci drawings at Windsor Castle. That year he was the joint organiser of an exhibition of Italian painting which opened at the Royal Academy on 1 January 1930.

When Charles F. Bell, Keeper of the Fine Art Department of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford retired in 1931 Clark agreed to succeed him. Over the next two years Clark oversaw the building of an extension to the museum to provide a better space for his department.

In 1933 he was recommended to the Prime Minister by the chairman of trustees for the post of Director of the National Gallery in London, succeeding Sir Augustus Daniel. He somewhat reluctantly accepted the role, and successfully united what had been a fractious administration. At the same time he was personally persuaded by the King to accept the role of Surveyor of the King's Pictures, a post he held for a decade.

His imperative while at the National Gallery was making art available for everyone, and he combined this work with writing and lecturing. Inevitably, when responsible for determining how best to use essentially public funds in purchasing art for the nation, some of his decisions were criticized and controversial. Another challenge he faced was how best to protect the huge collection during the threat of bombing during the Blitz.

In July 1946 Clark was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford for a three-year term. He also served on numerous official committees during this period, When the state-funded Council for the Encouragement of Music and the Arts was reconstituted as the Arts Council of Great Britain in 1945 he was invited to serve as a member of its executive committee, and as chairman of the council's arts panel.

The Clark family moved in 1953 when Clark bought the Norman castle of Saltwood in Kent, which became the family home.

From 1953-1960 Clark (now Sir Alan) was chairman of the Arts Council. From 1954-57 he was chairman of the Independent Television Authority, overseeing the launch of the UK's first commercially-funded television channel. At the end of that role, at the insistence of ATV chairman Lew Grade, he began to make his own programmes, beginning with "Is Art Necessary" in 1958. With the advent of colour TV in 1966, then BBC2 controller David Attenborough thought a series about the development of western art would be a perfect showcase, and that Clark was the man to present it. The show, "Civilisation: A Personal View by Alan Clark" was universally acclaimed as a masterpiece.

Clark made further series for ITV exploring the works of six artists, and for the BBC focusing on Rembrandt, but nothing on the scale of "Civilisation."

In 1976 his wife Jane, who had been intermittently ill for many years, died, and Clark remarried, in 1977, Nolwen de Janze Rice, who was French and owned a beautiful estate in Normandy. He was still writing and lecturing, although obviously on a smaller scale than previously, almost up to the end. In his last years Clark suffered from arteriosclerosis. He died in 1983 at the age of seventy-nine in a nursing home in Hythe, Kent, after a fall.

Find A Grave: Memorial #14808096

He was created Knight Commander of the Bath in 1938, was knighted in 1953, made a Companion of Honour in 1959, a life peer in 1969 (becoming Baron Clark of Saltwood)^[3] and gained the Order of Merit in 1976.

Sources

1. ↑ Clark noted in his memoirs that his birthplace later became the site of the American Embassy
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Clark
3. ↑ or, according to Private Eye magazine "Baron Clark of Civilisation"

See also:

• Wikipedia: Kenneth Clark
• Wikidata: Item Q371258, en:Wikipedia
• New York Times obiituary
• Clark, Kenneth "Another Part of the Wood: A Self Portrait" (HarperCollins 1975)
• Clark, Kenneth "The Other Half: A Self Portrait" (John Murray 1978)
• Kenneth is mentioned in the book 'BOOSEY & HAWKES: THE PUBLISHING STORY' written by Helen Wallace.'Boosey & Hawkes, the Publishing Story' by Helen Wallace-1

Acknowledgements

Clark-23389 was created by Ted Marmo through the import of SilverthornStire.ged on Jul 6, 2015.

The most pertinent information has been retained in the biography, but obviously this can still be edited to add valuable information or remove unnecessary details that could be accessed via a link to a dedicated biography page. Passing connections to other people with Wikitree profiles should be retained. Previous versions of this page can be accessed and restored, if appropriate, through the "Changes" tab.

Some further work still required on direct sourcing for biographical claims.