Assorted limited edition woodcut engravings by Clare Leighton, created for Where Land Meets Sea (n.d.), Pequot Library Special Collections
by Lili Dowell, Special Collections Assistant
Clare Leighton (1898-1989) was a British-American artist best known for creating pastoral-themed woodcut prints. Born in London, she began her career as a painter and made her first woodcut while studying art at the Central School of Art and Design in 1922. Pequot Library’s Special Collections contains a vast number of books Leighton illustrated, as well as a selection of her limited edition prints. Another major part of Pequot Library’s Clare Leighton collection are three of her diaries, which she kept faithfully from the ages of 14 to 20.
While living with her family in the coastal town of Lowestoft, England, Leighton wrote an entry almost daily, which gives wonderful insight into the artist’s day-to-day life. In these entries, much of her time is spent attending art classes and working for her mother. Her early passion for becoming a great artist is evident. “Shall I ever do anything in art? Am I going to make my mark in the world?” she says on May 1st, 1914.
Her journal is also a place for her to vent her negative emotions, saying things of a bleaker nature: “Life is an endless, aimless hole” (February 18, 1914).
Outside of her everyday tasks, a frequent focus of the entries in her journal is her budding romance with a man named Cecil Atkins. Her very first entry on January 1st begins by saying: “Glad that 1913’s over. Unlucky year- left London and came to the country- also met someone I’m trying my hardest to not think of.” Rarely referring to him by his full name, she favors using nicknames including “S.S.”, “Satkins”, “Spatkins”, “my sitter”, “my Stepping Stone”, or often simply “Him”.
Leighton’s aspirations to become a great painter are what initially draw Atkins and Leighton together. Throughout the early months of January, Leighton’s entries are filled with descriptions of meetings between the two while she paints his portrait. Frequently, Clare laments agreeing to the project. “By the way this picture is eating my life and vitality away- I must get it finished. It’s no use saying I must make it a success- that is impossible,” she says on February 1st. Months later, she writes, “Why did that man ever come across my path? Why did I ever offer to paint him?” (June 19, 1914).
When Leighton finally finishes Atkins’ portrait three months later, she is quite displeased with the outcome, to say the least. Clare records her perspective of the final painting session with SS, which took place on March 8th, 1914:
“After lunch ‘SS’ came for his last sitting. Again could not withstand temptation- the last kiss- the last embrace- ships that pass in the night- darkness again and a silence- that awful silence. Finished the picture- a dreadful failure”.
After Clare finishes SS’s portrait, the two see much less of each other. Despite their lack of contact, Clare continues to think of him. “The wound refuses completely to heal. Its an abominable nuisance,” she says, May 24th, 1914.
After the onset of World War I, Leighton’s diary takes a serious turn, during which she chronicles the war’s progress. A huge shock for Clare is the news that SS is leaving Lowestoft to join the war efforts.
“He- my Cecil- is mobilizing in his 360 national reservists- My sitter- going to fight! My God! Save Him! Look after him! Oh- let him come back with laurels- wreathed in them! Guard him! Help him to be a good man! Wars an awful thing. O now were in the throes of a terrible European war” (August 7th, 1914).
Despite Leighton’s great fears for his safety, Cecil Atkins eventually returns to Lowestoft after his time in the military. The pair do not rekindle their relationship. “I will not think of him,” she writes nearly a year later in May 1915. This seems to be the very final mention of Cecil Atkins in Clare Leighton’s diaries.
Here at Pequot Library, it has always been a bit of a mystery as to who “S.S.” could have been. To crack the case, I spent some time researching Atkins on websites such as Ancestry and FindMyPast, a UK-based genealogy platform. All signs point to “S.S.” being “Cecil Charles Atkins”, a man born in 1884. He would have been nearly twice Clare’s age, around 30 at the time she was painting his portrait. Since 15 year old Clare frequently refers to feeling like a child in comparison to him, this large age gap makes sense. “Love is very trivial. After breakfast worked for mother who showed ‘My Stepping Stone’ in another light. I had wanted to see his office but mother said if I went alone he would take advantage of the fact and act accordingly. So he’s that sort of man to everyone is he?” (February 2, 1914). She also says “I’m only a little girl… Wonder how many hearts hes broken!! Suppose he’s kissed all the juvenile females within several miles.”
In the following excerpt, where she reflects on the relationship near its very end, she again emphasizes their disparity in maturity.
“I was swayed by passion-by what I thought then, in my innocence, was love- and I am grateful, very grateful, in spite of those moments of suffering, to the man that teased me as he did. I was but a child and he- well he ought to have been a man- but I’m glad. It taught me much” (April 12, 1915).
Even as far back as 1915, their relationship would not have been accepted. The Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885 raised the age of consent from 13 to 16, and so, would have made Clare and Cecil’s relationship quite frowned upon. It may have even been considered a misdemeanor had it not been kept secret.
Because of his profession, Cecil would have been quite familiar with the updated laws of consent in the U.K. Dozens of newspapers published in the early 1900s document Cecil C. Atkins’ career as a solicitor. His cases often involved very serious crimes, such as instances of assault and child neglect.
In her journals, Clare occasionally reflects on S.S.’s appeals and career:
“Dawdled about in town after school hoping to see ‘SS’ to sympathize with him on the loss of his case in the appeal- poor poor man! He doesn’t stand defeat well- not at all well. He can’t come up again- just stays where he’s been pushed. Am very very sorry for him. Defeat always makes me fonder of a person” (March 6, 1915).
Another hint towards the real identity of S.S. is that Leighton often references Cecil’s family members. She feels particularly warm towards his mother.
“Mrs. Atkins- His mother- came to tea. His Mother! I’m fond of her because shes his mother! It’s something to be proud of. I owe a lot to her for having brought him into the world. Him- my SS… Mrs A. says that his solicitorial work is painful at present- that he [barely gets] even enough to pay his clerks! Poor poor man- I hope he has some capital to live on! And then he has to keep his mother- oh- I hope he has enough money! Poor man”.
The Atkins household on the 1915 census listed only three family members. The head of the household was Katherine Atkins, born in 1857, and a widow. The other family member listed on the census was Sybil Timbe Atkins, who is another character that makes an appearance in Leighton’s journal. “I asked him about the picture and he said it wanted varnishing and that I must go down to his place and varnish it soon and also see Sybil’s baby which, by the way, hes very fond of” (June 29, 1914).
From Clare’s entries, it seems that the Leightons and Atkinses were family friends. Occasionally, they would invite each other to lunch and tea, which is likely how Clare and Cecil first met.
“Mother telephoned to the Atkinss to invite them to lunch on Thursday but heard that Mrs. Atkins was in bed with fever and a trained nurse. Had seemed dangerously ill but was better now. Am so sorry. I’m quite fond of Mrs. A,” Clare wrote on April 20th.
Cecil C. Atkins passed away a decade after Clare’s diary entries, in the spring of 1924, at the age of 40, according to the Civil Registration Death Index. He was buried near his home in Kirkley Cemetery. Although I would have loved to find the portrait that Leighton spent so many long months painting, it remains unlocated as for now.
Regarding Clare Leighton, her artistry and career continued to thrive in the years following her girlhood in Lowestoft. After concluding her studies, she spent about a decade of traveling across America to exhibit her work and lecture about art. Clare permanently moved to the United States in 1939. After spending time teaching at Duke in North Carolina and making art throughout New England, she eventually settled here in Connecticut, where she is buried.