Study for 'October Morning', ca. 1926

Sir George Clausen RA (1852 - 1944)

RA Collection: Art

This is a preparatory study for Clausen's Royal Academy exhibit of 1926, October Morning (private collection). This study is closely comparable with the finished work, although Clausen did make several amendments which included lengthening the road in the foreground, casting the large tree on the right into silhouette and replacing the lone figure carrying a pack (a character he had used before in The Turn of the Road [1920] and Gossip on the Road [1923]) with multiple figures following a cart. The block-shaded trees in this study correspond largely with those that are cast in misty silhouette in the finished work.

October Morning was one of a series of small-scale paintings of misty mornings, often experienced from the roadside, which Clausen painted throughout the 1920s. It can be compared with Sunrise in September (1924; Ferens Art Gallery, Hull) and The Road: Winter Morning (1923; Tate Britain, London).