Clark, Kenneth MacKenzie

Clark, Kenneth MacKenzie (Lord Clark of Saltwood), 1903–83, English art historian. 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, and thereafter Slade professor of fine arts at Oxford until 1950 and from 1961 to 1962. He became chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain from 1955 to 1960. Among Clark's outstanding writings are 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 popular lecture series for television.

Bibliography

See biography by M. Secrest (1985); bibliography, ed. by R. M. Slythe (rev. ed. 1971).