This is one of a series of illustrations of Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights made by Edna Clarke Hall. After studying at the Slade School of Art and Slade School of Fine Art and winning many prizes, Clarke Hall’s artistic identity came into conflict with her husband’s expectations of her role as a wife, leading to a breakdown in 1919. However, by 1922, she was exhibiting again. Catherine Earnshaw’s yearning for Heathcliffe in the novel resonated with the artist’s own sense of isolation. In this bleak landscape, the boats perhaps stand for the artist’s desire for emotional escape.An art critic from the Times described Clarke Hall in 1926 as the ‘most imaginative artist we have’. Clarke Hall was also a poet and had several volumes published in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1932 her husband was knighted for his work in reforming child law and she became Lady Clarke Hall.

Collection of the Laing Art Gallery. Given by the Walker Mechanics Institute, 1942.