Henry Clarence WHAITE
(1895 Manchester - 1978 Chichester)
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Elaine's Last Journey - 1921
Woodcut engraving on thin wove paper. Size of sheet: 25.5 x 18 cm. Artist's proof. Inscribed in pencil '1st trial proof'.
Elaine of Astolat is a figure in Arthurian legend. She dies of her unrequited love for Sir Lancelot. According to the legend, as per her instruction her dead body is placed in a small boat, clutching a lily in one hand and her final letter in the other.
Henry Clarence Whaite: Elaine's Last Journey
Henry Clarence Whaite studied at Manchester Evening Schools, where he was awarded the Herbert Birley Gold Medal for Art, and scholarship to London. He studied under the influential art teacher, Henry Tonks (1862-1937), at the Slade School of Fine Art, London. In 1929 University College London published his monograph on ‘St Christopher in English Medieval Wall Painting' for which he had made 60 watercolour drawings in churches all around England; these are now in the collection of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Whaite exhibited at the New English Arts Club and with the London Group, before going on to teach in several London schools. He attended the University of London Institute of Education and oversaw their art teachers training programme between 1936 and 1962.
Whaite continued to paint and draw throughout his life. He also made a number of works using ceramics and stoneware, although he is best known as a highly accomplished woodcutter, engraver, and textile designer.
Whaite is represented by UCL Art Museum (London), City Art Gallery (Manchester), and Pallant House Gallery (Chichester). The Whitworth Gallery (Manchester University), like the Southwark Art Collection, holds an extensive collection his works in print.His older, second-cousin was the Victorian sublime landscape painter, also named Henry Clarence Whaite (1828-1912).