Katharine Frances Clausen (1886 - 1936)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Painter and Engraver, born in New York; lived and worked in London and Dublin. Daughter of Sir George Clausen RA; studied at the Royal Academy Schools 1908-1913, where she was awarded the 1st Silver medal for a painting of a figure from the life, 1910; 2nd Armitage prize £10 for a design in monochrome for a figure picture, 1911 and the Landseer scholarship £40 for 2 years 1911. She exhibited at the Royal Academy, New English Art Club, Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours, Goupil Gallery, Beaux Arts Gallery and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. She illustrated ‘Nancy in the Wood’ by Marion Brye, (London: John Lane, 1914).

She appears in a number of exhibited portraits by her father, George Clausen RA, including the oil painting Kitty (exh. Goupil Gallery, 1902, no. 13; see Willoughby and Overy-Owen, Clausen in Essex, 2002, illustrated p. 19). Between 1925-7 she acted as her father’s assistant when he was commissioned to paint a mural for St. Stephen’s Hall in the Houses of Parliament.

In 1928 she married the Irish yachtsman and author, Edward Conor Marshall O‘Brien (known as Conor), (1880-1952). A memorial exhibition was held in the Beaux Arts Gallery, 1936. Her work is held in the collections of the British Museum, Braintree District Museum, Crawford Art Gallery, National Museum of Wales. [Source: British Museum biographical entry].

Residences: 1915-1920: 61 Carlton Hill, N.W., London (home of her father, Sir George Clausen, R.A.); 1920-1927: 51 Ordnance Road, N.W. 8, London; 1927-1929: Studio, 6 Ladbroke Terrace, W., London; 1929-1936: 61 Carlton Hill, N.W., London