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Who is Clara Christian?

Clara Louise Christian (1868-1906), an English painter aligned with the New English Art Club, was a companion of the queer artist Ethel Walker (1861-1951) when she met George Moore in the late 1890s.

Clara and George became romantically involved. They moved to Dublin in 1901 but not into the same house, and continued their close friendship until 1904.

Though Clara exhibited her paintings and was positively reviewed, I have not found examples of her work on the Internet; nor have I found portraits of her by Ethel Walker, with whom she lived for a time. Ethel’s sitters were often female, many were anonymous, but none has been identified with Clara.

George Moore did not notice Clara in his art criticism or own pictures by her; she did not paint or draw a portrait of him. However he remembered her fondly as “Stella” in his memoirs Hail and Farewell (1911-1914).

The year after concluding her relationship with George, Clara married Charles McCarthy, the City Architect of Dublin. Eighteen months later she and her baby died in childbirth.