Location: Victoria & Albert Museum, London, Great Britain
Date: 1790
Medium: Pastel
Dimensions: 30.4 x 24.4 inches
You can find more details over at the V&A’s website here.
James Stanier Clarke (1766 – 1834) was a Royal Navy chaplain who, after serving on HMS Impetueux from 1796 to 1799, became domestic chaplain and librarian to the Prince of Wales (later George IV). Highly favoured, Clarke was named historiographer to the king in 1812, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and installed as canon of Windsor in 1821 following a political compromise between the King and the Prime Minister.
In 1815, Clarke hosted Jane Austen at Carlton House, facilitating the dedication of Emma to the Prince. However, Austen famously mocked his unsolicited plot suggestions in her satirical manuscript, Plan of a Novel.
A prolific writer, Clarke co-founded the Naval Chronicle and published Naufragia, or Historical Memoirs of Shipwrecks(1805). His major biography, The Life of Lord Nelson (1809), drew destructive criticism from Robert Southey for its questionable use of sources. He also published a Life of King James II (1816) based on lost Stuart manuscripts.
