CLARKE, Frank Edward

1848 - 1899

Frank Edward Clarke was born at Ipswich on 20 December 1848, son of Edward Clarke and his wife Anne Leah Clarkson (baptised 31 October 1819-9 October 1870), only daughter of Captain William Clarkson, R.N. of Rotherside, Surrey. In 1854 Dr Edward Clarke and his family emigrated to Launceston, Tasmania and it is likely Frank gained his drawing skills from his father, and he followed in his footsteps when he finished high school, travelling back to Cambridge University in England to study law and medicine. However, ill health may have curtailed his ambition, he developed heart disease, possibly following a bout of rheumatic fever, and was advised to pursue an outside job. He then trained as a surveyor and in 1870 returned to New Zealand living on the West Coast of the South Island. In 1873 he married Margaret May Mulvihill from Co. Clare, Ireland and they had seven children. In 1876 Clarke was appointed chief draughtman to the Survey Department and during his twenty-five years on the West Coast was involved in many of the community affairs. Clarke was a skilled artist and designer and his key contribution to natural history was in the field of ichthyology and his interest in fish was evident before he left Cambridge and he produced his own watercolour drawings of fish to document his findings and to illustrate his papers, as well as his talks to specialists and community groups. In the case of the prickly anglerfish, Te Papa’s holdings of Clarke’s work include three watercolours showing the lateral, profile and dorsal views of the species, as well as a pen and ink illustration that serves as the basis for the full-page illustration that accompanied his published paper in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (TNZI). While Clarke never presented his work in a fine art context, he did exhibit at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition in Dunedin, 1890-1891. Over 200 of his watercolours were shown in the Fisheries Court, and were described as ‘beautifully coloured, and apart from their great scientific value are excellent from an artistic point of view’. Frank Edward Clarke died at New Plymouth, North Island of New Zealand on 1 July 1899.

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Works by This Artist