Clare, John--Berry, G.B.

pen and ink, signed by the poet, 180 x 240 mm, c.1863, mounted on card, with a note affixed to the base of the mount ("Pen and ink portrait of John Clare. sketched about six months before his death by a Maniac an inmate of the Asylum." and beneath, in a different hand, "G.B. Berry of Bristol Artist"), spotting, some staining, restored tear  

A little-known portrait of one of England's finest nature poets, strikingly drawn with dense cross-hatching by a fellow inmate in Northamptonshire Asylum, and believed to be the last portrait of Clare drawn from life. Edward Storey, who reproduces this portrait in A right to song: the life of John Clare (1982), identifies the artist as George Duval Berry, who was incarcerated in Northampton General Lunatic Asylum from 1854 to 1864. Clare was an inmate at the same institution from 1841 until his death in May 1864.