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Cosmo Clark (b.1897; d.1967)

cosmo-clark‘The distinguished British artist’ John Cosmo Clark published his war correspondence from the First World War, when he was involved in the trial of a British soldier which ended with the latter’s execution. Captain Clark was the ‘prisoner’s friend’ who represented Stevenson who faced court martial. ‘Clark later became a distinguished artist but he was wholly unqualified’. His sketches ‘remind us of war’s humanity: shell-shocked faces, the wounded on stretchers, the boredom of waiting, the joys of a cigarette, the generosity of townspeople’. Cosmo Clark was a Royal Academician, married to Jean Clark. Both were members of the New English Art Club Watercolour Society. Both were prolific artists, with Cosmo finding time to make sketches whilst soldiering in France in the First World War. Several paintings of both of them were to be sold in aid of The Bishop’s Lent Call in 2003. ‘Cosmo Clark painted a portrait of T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia) and achieved his greatest success with a series of London pub paintings, during’ the Second World War.

See

  • Clark, Cosmo, The Tin Trunk – Letters and Drawings 1914-1918, 2000
  • Bankside Gallery, Retrospective Exhibition, Cosmo Clark 1897-1967, Jean Clark, 1902, 1983

Information collated from: Putkowski, J., ‘Shot at Dawn: Pte. Stevenson & Captain Cosmo Clark’,http://www.ku.edu/carrie/archives/wwi-1/2001/01/msg00123.html, written January 16 2001, accessed October 3 2003; Reviewer from Suffolk, UK, ‘Tin Trunk , The Letters and Drawings 1914-1918,http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0953979903/ref=sr_aps_books_1_1/026…, accessed October 3 2003; Diocese of Southwark, ‘The Bridge, March 2003 – The Bishop’s Lent Call 2003’, http://www.dswark.org/bridge/0303/page11.htm, accessed October 3 2003; Thistlefineart.com, ‘Clark, John Cosmo – oil on canvas’, http://www.thistlefineart.com/Clark.htm, accessed October 3 2003.

Featured Image: Invaluable.co.uk

By Second World War Posters

Mass Communications Academic, @MMUBS. British Home Front Propaganda posters as researched for a PhD completed 2004. In 1997, unwittingly wrote the first history of the Keep Calm and Carry On poster, which she now follows with interest.

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