Clare Winsten [née Clara Birnberg] (1894 - 1989) was an artist perhaps best known for her unique role as the only female member of the Whitechapel Boys, a collective of predominantly Jewish artists and writers which included members such as David Bomberg and Isaac Rosenberg, whom she studied alongside at the Slade Art School between 1910 and 1912. However, when considered apart from her famous contemporaries Winsten stands up as extremely gifted artist in her own right, whose... work was respected by her peers and tutors at the Slade. Clare Winsten, then going by her maiden name Clara Birnberg, (which reflected her heritage as a Jewish-Romanian émigré), was not only an artist in a time when women were not considered serious contenders in the art world, but also a vegetarian and a women’s rights advocate. Although it seems that she never actively sought attention from her association with the Whitechapel Boys as she studied for two years at the Slade without making great waves, it was her quiet determination in her craft as a painter, sculptor and draughtswoman which singles her out as a female artist who subverted the expectations put upon women quietly and consistently rather than uproariously. This is exemplified in the fact that Winsten always signed her work with her full name, something other female artists were reluctant to do as it drew attention to their gender. Winsten was isolated from the other female students at the Slade, mostly because of their difference in background, Winsten as a working class Jewish emigre, while the other female students were predominantly middle and upper class ladies of leisure, to whom art was a hobby and not a career.
Winsten’s early unfinished watercolour ‘Attack’ (1910) is part of the Ben Uri Collection, (you can see the painting here: http://po.st/FSRZex). Under the influence of post-impressionism her flat, expressive figures artfully posed around the dominating form of the dark horse are reminiscent of fellow Whitechapel Boy’s member David Bomberg. To see more work by Clare Winsten & other subversive female artists, browse the collection here http://po.st/VzCpoh