Elly Clarke - The George Richmond Portrait Project, 2010-ongoing
11 hand-printed photographs & audio accessed via QR codes

Shown at ARTicle Gallery, Jan-Feb 2013 and WIP Konsthall, Stockholm, Sweden December 2012

Download the curator's introduction here. And list of titles & audio for the Richmond Project here.

The George Richmond Portrait project is an ongoing project by Elly Clarke (b.1976, London) that involves her tracing of family portraits by British Victorian portraitist George Richmond RA (1809-1896) to private homes, in order to photograph both the portraits and their current guardians (descendents of those portrayed) in situ. The artist is also conducting audio interviews with the people she is meeting - extracts of which may be heard by following the QR codes on the labels beside each set of pictures.

George Richmond was one of the most prolific portrait artists of his generation, producing over 2,500 portraits in total, spanning royalty, the aristocracy and rising merchant classes and luminaries of his age, including author Charlotte Bronte; scientist Charles Darwin, politician William Wilberforce and Edward VII. The National Portrait Gallery in London has over 200 Richmond portraits in its collection - but most are still owned by the same families that commissioned them. It is on these portraits that Elly Clarke is focusing. George Richmond is the artist's great-great-great grandfather.

CLICK ON THE IMAGES FOR ADDITIONAL PHOTOGRAPHS & AUDIO

vanderwerffportraitinsitu Lucy_Home_at_Matt_Darby_Kemerton_Court

Portrait_at_Eastnor 1_GurneysbeiLubbock Arthur_and_Walter_Scott_in_the_Hall_by_the_back_stairs_at_Rotherfield

ELLY CLARKE WITH PORTRAIT OF WILILAM BLAKE RICHMOND BY HIS FATHER GEORGE

Elly Clarke with portrait of her great great grandfather William Blake Richmond as a child, painted by his father George. Photographed by the artist's mother Polly Clarke in Essex, November 2010. Hand printed photograph, 20.5cm x 25.5cm, Edition of 5 + 2APs