A great part of the working-life of Clarence Whaite has been spent apart from his fellows, in communion with Nature. What, when his life-work is gathered together, has he to justify that seclusion, that withdrawal from the labour that is obviously useful ? He brings us a sense of beauty, and that is much, for we do not live by bread alone. But he has striven consciously to bring us something more — his paintings shew it, and he has said it in words — he has striven to give us, as an abiding possession, the sense that in the Nature around us are revealed, dimly though it may be, a presence and a power akin to, if infinitely transcending our own. Is this a commonplace? Perhaps it is; but to remain so it must be insisted upon: and if not to be common as well as commonplace, it must receive fresh and ever varied interpretation. And we will not complain, but be grateful rather to Mr. Clarence Whaite, in that, in the simplicity of his heart and mind, he has openly adhered to, and clearly set forth, an old-fashioned, but none the less valid and valuable truth. — J. Ernest Pythian, pp. 7-8
Paintings
Bibliography
Lord, Peter. The Betws-y-Coed Artists' Colony 1844-1914: Clarence Whaite and the Welsh Art World. Aberystwyth: National Library of Wales, 1998. (This is difficult to obtain, even though a special limited ed. came out in 2009.)
____. Imaging the Nation: The Visual Culture of Wales. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2000.
Pythian, J. Ernest. "A Phase of the Art of Clarence Whaite." The Manchester Quarterly: A Journal of Literature and Art. Vol. XVIII (1899): 1-8. Internet Archive. Contributed by Robarts Library, University of Toronto. Web. 16 January 2022.
Ruskin, John. "Academy Notes. 1859." Complete Works of John Ruskin. Ed. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1904. Vol. XIV: 229-57. Internet Archive. Contributed by the Central Library, Bits-Pilani, India. Web. 16 January 2022.
Created 17 January 2022