Quiet Spirit, Skillful Hand: The Graphic Work of Clare Leighton

This May the Mint Museum of Art will originate a major traveling exhibition of more than 100 rare and unique works by British-born artist and writer Clare Leighton. This collection of Leighton’s work, assembled and donated to the Museum by Charlotte resident Gabby Pratt, is one of the largest in the country and includes more than 180 of the artist’s finely-detailed engravings, drawings and watercolors, spanning Leighton’s career from 1923 to 1965.

Quiet Spirit, Skillful Hand: The Graphic Work of Clare Leighton will provide a full survey of Leighton’s career, from her earliest prints in the 1920s that depict the labors of the English working classes to a selection of her rarely seen watercolors. Unique to the Pratt collection is a set of 12 Wedgwood plates, titled “New England Industries,” for which Leighton designed the transfer-printed images. Among the exhibition’s highlights will be the prints that resulted from Leighton’s early visits to North America, including The Breadline, New York and Snow Shovelers, New York, as well as the artist’s entire Canadian Lumber Camp series.

The exhibit will be on view at the Mint Museum of Art from May 17-September 14.

Visit mintmuseum.org for details on this and other exhibits.