Study for 'Primavera'

The most striking and unusual paintings that Clausen produced in the years up to the Great War were classical nudes. While he was not seeking to recreate the classical world in the manner of his predecessors Leighton and Alma-Tadema, he nevertheless struck out for a purity of form that had much in common with the work of Puvis de Chavannes. No other nude of the period conveys these qualities so well as the great Primavera, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1914 (sold Christie’s, London, 17 June 2014, lot 95, £92,500) for which this drawing is a study. The sitter is one of his favoured models, either Dorothy [‘Dolly’] Henry or Lilian Ryan.