Boy, 11, Offered £8,300 For His Painting

Second copy of an old master may fetch him over £10,000

A school boy who lives in Cedars Road, Clapham, has been offered £8,300 for the copy he is making in the National Gallery of Wouwermans' "Cavalry Battle." He is 11 years old and has never had an art lesson in his life, although he has been painting since he was three.

When Howard Clanford (Anthony Christian) enters his oil paintings in competitions they are returned. "It's impossible for a person of your age to paint as well as this," selection committees tell him. But Howard isn't worried. He is getting commissions. "I can more or less name my own price for the Wouwermans' style painting I'm doing at the moment," he told our reporter. A honeymoon couple have offered him 17 guineas for a painting. "It's full of faults, worth about five bob," he comments.

Howard started on his main work, the Wouwermans, a year ago. A keeper at the art gallery has been his friend and guide and, says Howard, "because of what he has told me, that I have not done the painting in the right stages, I intend to do it again when I have finished the first copy - in about three years time.
"My old school, Macaulay, used to let me have Friday afternoons off to go to the gallery, but I have just started at a new school, and I'm waiting permission to have some time off. I'm only doing about two hours a week on the painting at present.
"Soon after I started work on the Wouwermans, an American offered me £400 for the copy (57in. by 41in.). Then others made higher offers. The latest was made by a Canadian, 25,000 dollars (£8,300). The reason they are offering me so much money is that the original (4ft. by 6ft. 4in.) is so complicated and difficult, no one has ever attempted to copy it before.
"Artists come in, spend some weeks copying an easy painting and sell it for £700, but I would not like to do that. It's cheap. I want to do something worth while, something I can be proud of.
"I shan't offer other of my works to those people who do not buy my copy, which I shall sell to the highest bidder. It is up to them to approach me and make new offers for other paintings. I haven't the foggiest idea how much I shall get for the second copy of the Wouwermans. Much more than £10,000, I suppose."

Howard has lived in Clapham all his life. He has two brothers - Roger, 14 ("mad on exercise and girls") and Michael, 13, an avid model aeroplane fan. His mother is an ex-singer and was herself keen on painting at one time.

Cathedral Chorister

Four nights a week and all day Sunday, Howard is at Southwark Cathedral. Singing in the choir is his only other interest apart from painting. He is also quick with figures and fairly good at most other school lessons. But athletics. He would rather draw a veil over the subject. "I can't run six yards," he confesses.

Anthony Christian's "The Battle Scene" was completed in 1961. It took him over six years to complete, during which time he had received offers up to £8000. It was his first major work and is currently on display in The ICHOR Gallery in Yorkshire.
For more information, call +44 (0) 113 281 1223 or email maura@ichorgallery.com to contact the artists.