CLARKE, Joseph Clayton (KYD) (Charles Dickens). Sairey Gamp (from Martin Chuzzlewit) (ORIGINAL INK AND WATERCOLOR SKETCH - c.1920)

AUTHOR: CLARKE, Joseph Clayton (KYD) (Charles Dickens). 

TITLE: Sairey Gamp (from Martin Chuzzlewit).

PUBLISHER: England, [c. 1920].

DESCRIPTION: ORIGINAL INK AND WATERCOLOR SKETCH. 1 leaf, on paper, image 9.5 cm x 10.5 cm, overall 18 cm x 20 cm, signed "KYD" in the lower right, mounted in an old circular matte.

CONDITION: VERY GOOD.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Joseph Clayton Clarke (1857 - 8 August 1937), who worked under the pseudonym "Kyd", was a British artist best known for his illustrations of characters from the novels of Charles Dickens.  From 1927 Clarke earned his living from watercolor sketches, mainly of Dickens' characters, which he sold to and through the London book trade. Frederic G. Kitton referred to Clarke in his book Dickens and His Illustrators (1890), by which time Clarke's watercolors were already being bought by major Dickens collectors.  In 1910 the British Museum acquired a collection of 598 drawings and paintings of Clarke's Dickens illustrations, and the Victoria and Albert Museum, Charles Dickens Museum and the University of Texas at Austin each also have significant collections of Clarke's Dickens illustrations.