Clark, Kenneth MacKenzie

Clark, Kenneth MacKenzie (Lord Clark of Saltwood), 1903–83, English art historian, studied Oxford. After working with Bernard Berenson in Florence, Clark was keeper of the department of fine art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (1931–34). From 1934 to 1945 he was the director of the National Gallery, London. Thereafter he was Slade professor of fine arts at Oxford (1946–50, 1961–62) and chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain (1953–60) among other posts. His outstanding writings include two studies on Leonardo da Vinci, The Drawings at Windsor Castle (1935, with Carlo Pedretti) and Leonardo da Vinci (2d ed. 1952); a study of the paintings of Piero della Francesca (2d ed. 1969); Landscape into Art (1949); The Nude (1955); Rembrandt and the Italian Renaissance (1966); and The Romantic Rebellion (1974). His cultural survey Civilisation (1970) is based on his 1969 series for BBC television (broadcast by PBS in the United States).

See biographies by M. Secrest (1985) and J. Stourton (2016); bibliography, ed. by R. M. Slythe (rev. ed. 1971).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies