Conservators and Restorers of Paintings

38 Cornwall Gardens, London SW7 4AA

ATELIER: 109 Leathwaite Road, London, SW11 6RW

Mobile: +44 (0) 78 36 35 9995

Email: FinnClare@aol.com


Clare was elected to the Critics Circle Visual Arts and Architecture Section for her writing in 2011 and was elected to be the sections’ secretary in 2013 a post she continues to fulfil.

PUBLICATIONS:
  •  'Picasso and the Foundry of Emile Robecchi during the Second World War'  The Burlington Magazine,  Vol. 162, No. 1406, May 2020, pp. 420 - 431.
  •  'The Making of Picasso's "Woman in a Long Dress"', The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 160, No. 1388, November 2018, pp. 921 - 927.
  •  'Travailler en temps de Guerre: Les Fonts de Picasso et les campages de récupération', in Pablo  Picasso: L'Homme au Mouton, at Le Picine-Musée d'art et de industrie André Diligent, Roubaix   et Editions Snoek, Gand, 2018, pp. 62 - 79. 
  • 'Preserving Illusions' on conservation and the Magic Circle Museum, in Icon News,  August 2018, pp. 17 - 20.
  •  'Examining Examination', in Icon News, March 2017, pp. 20 - 21.
  •  'Au déla de la talent: Picasso l'orfèvre', in Un génie sans piédestal; Picasso et les arts et    traditions populaire, Mucern, Marseilles, Gallimard, Paris, 2016.
  • ‘Fondre en bronze pendant la guerre’, in Picasso Sculptures, Musée Picasso Paris & Somogy Éditions d’Art, Paris, 2016, pp. 200 – 204.
  • ‘Recreating Mr Turner’s life and times’, in ICON News, January 2015, pp. 22 – 25.
  •  ‘The Devil in the Detail’, Apollo, January 2014, vol. CLXXIX, No. 616, pp. 50 – 54.
  • ‘What Do Others See?’, News in Conservation, IIC, London, December 2013, pp. 8 – 13.
  • ‘Rumours of War ; Rudier and art bronze casting during the Second World War’, Sculpture Journal, 2013, volume 22.2,pp. 128 – 133.
  • ‘Cookery Corner – or Peregrinations to Communications’, in ICON News, January 2013, p. 11. 
  • ‘Written Documentation for Paintings Conservation’ in Conservation of Easel Paintings, ed. Joyce Hill Stoner & Rebecca Rushfield, Routledge, London & New York, 2012, pp. 271 – 276. 
  • ‘The Fragility of Art’, cassone-art.com, August 2011. 
  • ‘The Golden Muse’, Apollo, May 2011, vol. CLXXIII, No. 587, pp. 52 – 59. 
  • Sale notes to lots 67 &68 for Bonham’s sale of ‘Picasso Editions’ Thursday, 23 September 2010.
  • ‘Calder’s Legacy’, Apollo, November 2009, vol. CLXX, No. 570, pp. 54 – 58. 
  • ‘Picasso the Sculptor; a granddaughter’s tribute’, Apollo, October 2008, vol. CLXVIII, No. 558, pp. 24 – 31.
  • ‘The Making of Picasso’s Art; “Not…by thought but with your hands”’ in the publication for the exhibition  Picasso: Fired with Passion, 6 July – 28 October 2007, Exhibition at the National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh, pp. 1 - 35.
  • ‘Art on a Plate, Picasso’s Silver Compotiers’, Apollo, May 2007, vol. CLXVI, No. 543, pp. 72 - 76.
  • Co-curated the exhibition Picasso en or et en argent, « Le parcours de la sagesse »at the Musée de l’orfèvrerie de la Communauté française at the Château de Seneffe, Seneffe, Belgium from 8 October 2005 to 5 February 2006, contributed an essay to the catalogue – ‘Le travail de Picasso en or et en Argent’ and catalogue notes for the exhibited pieces. 
  • Co-curated the exhibition Picasso Peintre d'objets, Objets de peintre held at Musée d’Art moderne, Céret, France, from 12 June to 19 September 2005 and at La Piscine – musée d’art et d’industrie André Diligent, Roubaix, France, from 9 October 2004 to 9 January 2005, and contributed to essays to the catalogue : ‘Picasso et les bijoux’, & ‘L’argenterie dans la vie et dans l’œuvre de Picasso’, in Picasso Peintre d’objets, Objets de peintre, Gallimard, Paris, 2004.
  • ‘François Hugo’s collaboration with Pablo Picasso’ included in Bijoux d’artistes, Artist’sJewels, Hommage à François Hugo, edited by Pierre Hugo, and Claire Siaud, Les Cyprès Editeur, Les Cypres, Aix-en-Provence, 2002. 
  • ‘The cleaning of painted stone’ included in Conservation of Building and Decorative Stone, Ed. John Ashurst and Francis G. Dimes, Butterworth-Heinemann, London, 1990.

Reviews: 

  • ‘Adora Maar – The Invisible Woman’ on the Exhibition at Tate Modern, Dora Maar, http://www.criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts/ December 2019.
  • ‘Ben Nicholson; Writings and Ideas’, on the book Ben Nicholson; Writings and Ideas, ed. Lee Child, Lund Humphries, London, Mar. 2019 for http://www.criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts/ June 2019.
  •  ‘’Oh No, it’s Not The Original’ or Giant Steps?’ on an exhibition at the Watts Gallery of the work of James Henry Pollen, in ICON News, April 2019,                      pp. 19 – 23.
  • ‘Bonnard’s Dog of Distinction’ on Pierre Bonnard, The Colour of Memory, at Tate, http://www.criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts/ January 2019.
  • ‘Singing for this Year’s Unsung Hero: Michael Rowe’, on the winner of the Critics’ Circle Visual Arts & Architecture Unsung Hero Award for 2017,                       http://www.criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts/November 2018.
  • ‘Pooh, the bear that delights old and young’, on Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic at the Victoria and Albert Museum,                                                      www.criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts/, February 2018.
  •  ‘With Magical Touch’ on A Farewell to Art: Chagall, Shakespeare and Prospero at the Ben Uri Gallery, www.criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts/, February 2018.
  •  ‘How Calder Broke the Ground’, on the first volume of Jed Perl’s new biography of Alexander Calder, Calder: The Conquest of Time: The Early Years:       1898-1940, http://www.criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts/, January 2018.
  • ‘Picasso Portraits: Humour is Key’ http://www.thelondonmagazine.org, 25 November 2016.
  • ‘Picasso Sculptures at Musée National Picasso-Paris’ http://www.thelondonmagazine.org, 4 October 2016.
  • Paul Taylor, Condition: The Aging of Art, Paul Holberton, London, 2015, in Icon News, March 2016, p. 26.
  • ‘Canaletto in Cumbria’ on Canaletto: Celebrating Britain at Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, Cumbria for criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts, January 2016.
  • 'The Conservation Oscars', on the 2015 Conservation Awards, for criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts, December 2015.
  • Goya the unflattering flatterer', on Goya: the Portraits, at the National Gallery, London for criticscircle.org.uk/visual-arts, October 2015.
  • 'Richard Dadd's master strokes' on The Art of Bedlam, Richard Dadd Exhibition at the Watts Gallery, for Cassone-Art.com, July 2015.
  • ‘A Review of Last Year’s Films on Art’, News in Conservation, Issue 49, August 2015, pp. 17 – 18.
  • ‘Did Picasso make Spain Modern?’ on Picasso and Spanish Modernity; works from the Collection of the Museo National Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Eugenio Carmona (Ed.), Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2014, for Cassone-art.com, May 2015.
  • ‘A carnival of animals in Picasso’s art’ on Boris Friedewald, Picasso's Animals, Prestel, Munich, London, New York, 2014, for Cassone-art.com, Jan 2015
  • Buying art - help for the uninitiated!’on the launch of Art Select UK, for Cassone-art.com, Jan 2015.
  • ‘Late Turner; Painting Set Free and Mr Turner – a review’ in News in Conservation, Dec 2014.
  • ‘Dazzling displays and Georgian extravaganzas’ on Melanie Doderer-Winkler, MagnificentEntertainments, Temporary Architecture for Georgian Festivals, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, Yale University Press 2013, for Cassone-art.com, July 2014.
  • ‘Fame, money and running an art business in Renaissance Florence’ on Michelle O’Malley, Painting under Pressure; fame, reputation & demand in Renaissance Florence, YUP, New Haven & London, 2013, for Cassone-art.com, April 2014.
  • ‘Derring-do, skulduggery and long-lost Trojan treasures’ on John Galway, The Face of Agamemnon, AuthorHouse, Bloomington, Indiana, 2013 for Cassone-art.com, February 2014.
  • 'Picasso's progress from The Blue Room to Guernica' on Clark, T. J., Picasso and Truth, from Cubism to Guernica, The A.The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Bollingen Series XXXV. 58,Princeton University Press 2013, for Cassone-art.com, December 2013.
  • ‘The fantasy world of Shunga’ on the exhibition Shunga, Sex and Pleasure in Japanese Art at The British Museum, London, for Cassone-art.com, December 2013.
  • ‘Picasso: the great flatterer of 20th century painting’ on the exhibition Catalogue Picasso Black and White, Carmen Giménez (ed), Guggenheim, New York, 2012, for Cassone-art.com, November 2013.
  • ‘Gallery Elena Shchukina’s exhibition of Kyosuke Tchinai’s work’ for Cassone-art.com, November 2013.
  • ‘Casali: Photographer of hidden essences’ on the exhibition Giorgio Casali photographer/ domus 1951 – 1983, architecture, design and art in Italy at the Estorick Collection, London, for Cassone-art.com, August 2013.
  • ‘The spoils of war’ on a discussion on the restitution of art looted during the Second World War at the London Jewish Cultural Centre, for Cassone-art.com, June 2013.
  • ‘Alexander Calder’s lyrical inventions’ on the exhibition Calder After the War at Pace Gallery London for Cassone-art.com, April & May 2013.
  • ‘Japanned PapierMâché and Tinware c. 1740 – 1940’ , in Studies in Conservation, Vol. 58, No. 2, April 2013, pp 149 – 152.
  • ‘A celebration of invisible work’ on the launch of a year to celebrate 100 years of conservation at Historic Royal Palaces, Cassone-art.com, April 2013.
  • ‘Man Ray: capturing the fizz of his time’ on the exhibition, Man Ray Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery, Cassone-art.com, April 2013.
  • ‘A trail of tears leads to George Catlin’s Indian Gallery’ on the exhibition George Catlin American Indian Portraits, at the National Portrait Gallery, London, cassone-art.com, April 2013.
  • ‘A year in the life of…Picasso’ on the exhibition Becoming Picasso Paris 1901, at the Courtauld Gallery, London, cassone-art.com, February 2013.
  • ‘Glimpsing the history of the world through its furniture’ on the Victoria & Albert Museum’spermanent gallery for furniture - the Dr Susan Weber Gallery, cassone-art.com, February 2013.
  • 'Roll uo, roll up - the circus in French art' on Picasso and the Circus, Fin-de-Siècle Paris and the Suite de Saltimbanques, ed Phillip Earenfight, the Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, 2011, cassone-art.com, December 2012.
  • 'Bronze: crossing continents, through millenia' on Bronze, held at The Royal Academy of Arts, London, 15 Sept to 9 Dec 2012, cassone-art.com, October 2012.
  • ‘Varnishing Acts’ on Yvonne Jones, Japanned PapierMâché and Tinware c. 1740 – 1940, Antique Collectors Club, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2012, in Apollo, October 2012, vol CLXXVI, No. 602, pp. 114 – 115.
  • ‘The pursuit of authenticity’, on Thierry Lenain, Art Forgery: The History of a Modern Obsession, Reaktion, London, 2011, in Apollo, June 2012, vol CLXXV, No. 599, pp. 124 - 125.
  • ‘Picasso and Britain – a difficult relationship?’ on the Exhibition Picasso and Modern British Art at Tate Britain from 15 February to 15 July 2012, Cassone-art.com, April 2012.
  • ‘Eugène Atget's documentary Surrealism’ on Eugène Atget, Old Paris, Fundació Mapfre & TF Editores, Madrid & Alcobendas, Spain, 2011, cassone-art.com, February 2012.
  • ‘Celebrity collectors: The Stein family’ on The Steins Collect, Matisse, Picasso and the Parisian Avant Garde, Ed. Janet Bishop, Cecile Debray and Rebecca Rabinow, cassone-art.com, January 2012.
  • ‘Picasso in bohemian Paris’ on Marilyn McCully et al, Picasso in Paris 1900 –1907, for cassone-art.com, August 2011.
  • With Dr. Joyce Townsend, ‘Picasso’s Materials and Techniques’, Icon News; The Magazine of the Institute of Conservation, July 2010, issue 29, pp. 29 – 30.
  • ‘Therese Lichtenstein et al, Twilight Visions; Surrealism and Paris, The Art Book, Vol 17, No. 2, May 2010, pp. 61 - 62 .
  • ‘Elizabeth Cowling’s Picasso’s late sculpture: Woman’ The Art Book, Vol. 1, No. 1, Feb 2010, pp. 27 – 28.
  • ‘In the age of duchesses’ on John Richardson’s A Life of Picasso, Volume III, The Triumphant Years 1917 – 1932, Apollo, Vol. CLXVII, No. 552, March 2008, pp. 186 – 187.
  • ‘The man who was married to Picasso’, On Elizabeth Cowling’s book Visiting Picasso : The Notebooks and Letters of Roland Penrose, Thames & Hudson, 2006 – That became the 2006 Apollo book of the year Apollo, Vol. CLXIX, No. 533, July 2006, pp. 62 – 63.
  • ‘Potted History’ on of the exhibition Picasso : ceramics & Tradition, held at the Spanish Pavilion, Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan, from 21 March to 25 September 2005 and at the Museo Picasso, Málaga, from 24 October 2005 to 5 February 2006 -for Apollo, January 2006, vol. CLXIII, No. 527, pp. 80 – 81.

LECTURES : 

  • ‘Picasso’s casting in bronze during World War II’, Critics Circle, 9 January 2018.
  • ‘Examining Examination’, ICON Conference, Birmingham 2016.
  • 'Picasso's bronze casting during World War II' at the Picasso Colloque Paris, March 2016.
  • “Overlooked; uncovering a hidden history” on Clare’s research into a copy of a Portrait of Edward VI, Conservation of Easel Paintings Course, Burt Hall, Northumbria University, October 2014.
  • ‘What Do Others See?’ on Clare’s research into visual perceptions in the arts, ICON Conference, Glasgow 2013.
  • ‘From Birmingham to Byzantium and beyond; a journeys into Papier-mâché’ on Clare’s research into painted papier mâché panels for ships interiors, given at the 2010 ICON Conference, Cardiff & to the ICON Scotland Group, June 2011.
  • ‘Picasso’s cast metal work’ to the ICON Metal’s Group, 2007.
  • ‘Uses of digital imaging in conservation reports’ to the ICON Paintings’ group, 2005.
  • ‘Insurance for Conservators’ to the ICON Paintings’ group, 2004.
  • ‘Preventative Conservation’, at the invitation of the British Council, at the Metropolitan Museum in Manila, in the Philippines, 1980s.
  • ‘Conservation Business Practice’, to the metal conservation and restoration course, West Dean College, Chichester, 1980s.