Caspar Purdon Clarke
Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke | |
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Born | Richmond, County Dublin, Ireland | 21 December 1846
Died | Earl's Court, London, England | 29 March 1911
Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke
Early years
Born in 1846, Clarke was the second son of
South Kensington Museum
In 1867 he moved to the South Kensington Museum where he oversaw mosaic reproduction. Beginning in 1874, Clarke accepted various foreign assignments as supervising architect to the crown, most notably Tehran. In 1876, Clarke travelled to Turkey, Syria, and Greece and in 1879 to Spain, Italy, and Germany buying artefacts for the Museum.
In 1878 he acted as architect of the Indian section and commercial agent to the Indian government at the Paris Exhibition. In 1880 Clarke arranged the Indian collections at South Kensington, which led to taking on the position of special commissioner in India and then becoming keeper of the India Museum at South Kensington in 1883. His acquisitions included the Hamzanama folios, early Mughal illustrations of the epic adventures of Hamza by northern Indian and Iranian artists. He also bought contemporary crafts, architectural woodwork and drawings. In 1892 Clarke was appointed Keeper of the art collections, in 1893 promoted to assistant director before finally becoming Director in 1896. During his time as Director he also filled the posts of Royal Commissioner at the 1900 Paris Exhibition and at St Louis in 1904. He resigned from the South Kensington Museum (renamed in 1899 as the Victoria and Albert Museum) in 1905.
Whilst at the South Kensington Museum, he continued to be active as an architect and undertook several commissions in the Indian style. These included Lord Brassey's Indian Museum in Park Lane in 1887 and the Indian Palace at the 1889 Paris Exhibition. In 1899 he was commissioned, in conjunction with architect William Young, to design the Indian hall at Elvedon, Suffolk by Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh (1847–1927). He also later advised Iveagh on the furniture and tapestries for Elvedon.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
In 1904 the president and
Other offices
Clarke's official duties did not stop him carrying out other notable work. In 1870 he organised and conducted evening art classes for artisans in Soho, Lambeth, and Clerkenwell and he designed Cotherstone church, Durham (1876), Alexandra House, Kensington (1886, for students at the Royal College of Music), and the National School of Cookery, South Kensington (1887). He visited America to study the housing of female students at Boston in 1884, edited a work on oriental carpets for the Austrian government in 1892, and besides lecturing, contributed numerous papers on architecture, Eastern arts and crafts, and arms and armour to the Journal of the Society of Arts, the Journal of Indian Art, the Journal of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and other publications. In 1910 he published a catalogue of the Arms and Armour at Sandringham.
He was made chevalier of the
References
- ^ American Art Annual, Volume 9. MacMillan Company. 1911. p. 310.
- ^ "The Coronation Honours". The Times. No. 36804. London. 26 June 1902. p. 5.
- ^ "No. 27494". The London Gazette. 11 November 1902. p. 7165.
Further reading
- Lane, John (1905). Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke, Kt.; A Personal Note, New York, J. Lane
- MacBean, Edward (1911). "In Memoriam. Sir Caspar Purdon Clarke, W. M., 1899–1900. Born 1846. – Died 1911." Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, Vol. 24.