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  • 11 - Constructed Image

  • from Part III - Clare’s Image
  • Edited by Sarah Houghton-Walker, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
  • Book:
    The Cambridge Companion to John Clare
    Published online:
    14 November 2024
    Print publication:
    21 November 2024, pp 166-180

  • Summary

    This essay discusses the most important surviving portraits of Clare. It reproduces images of six objects, including three paintings, one portrait bust, one sketch, and one photograph, which together span the period of Clare’s adult life. It argues that, as a group, the most familiar artistic representations of Clare tended to depict him as either weak or strong, though it also shows that both extremes of this dichotomy were adaptable to the ideal of the visionary poet. In reconstructing what can be known about the circumstances surrounding each individual sitting, the essay shows that Clare was viewed as an interesting subject by artists of widely varying backgrounds and styles. These depictions together form a vital part of Clare’s biographical record.