Thomas Shields Clarke

Thomas Shields Clarke (April 25, 1860 – November 15, 1920), American artist, was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Charles John Clarke and Louisa Semple. One of his brothers was Louis Semple Clarke. Clarke married Adelaide Knox, daughter of Theodore Hand Knox and Adelaide Susan Jenney, on 3 October 1886 in Geneva, Switzerland. The couple had three children, daughters Alma Adelaide Clarke and Beatrice Clarke Remington, and a son Charles John Clarke, named for his great-grandfather, and known as Jack.

After graduating from Princeton University in 1882, Clarke split his time between the United States and Europe. He was a pupil of the Art Students League, New York City, and of the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, under Jean-Léon Gérôme; later he entered the atelier of Pascal Dagnan-Bouveret, and, becoming interested in sculpture, worked for a while under Henri Chapu. He established a studio, Fernbrook, in Lenox, Massachusetts in 1904, where he generally worked during the summer months.

As a sculptor, he received a medal of honor in Madrid for his The Cider Press (aka The Apple Cider Press). Shields also created the four caryatids of The Seasons for the Appellate Court House, New York. He designed an Alma Mater for Princeton University, and a model is in their library. Among his paintings are his Night Market in Morocco (Philadelphia Art Club), for which he received a medal at the International Exposition in Berlin in 1891, and his A Fool's Fool, exhibited at the Salon in 1887.

Some of his work can be seen in San Francisco at the M. H. de Young Museum. The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts also holds some his work.