Clara Pope

Clara Maria Leigh
Born	c.1767 London
Died	24 December 1838 London
Nationality	British

Clara Maria Leigh or Clara Maria Pope (c.1767 – 24 December 1838) was a British painter and botanical artist.

Illustration of camellias by Clara Maria Pope for Samuel Curtis's Monograph on the Genus Camellia, c. 1819.

Life

Leigh was born in London and christened in 1767 at St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. Her father was Jared Leigh, an amateur artist. She work as an artist's model for a number of years. She married the painter Francis Wheatley, probably in the 1780s, and they had four children.

Leigh began by painting miniatures, and by 1796 she was exhibiting at the Royal Academy. Her husband died in 1801, and Leigh struggled to support her family. An accomplished botanical artist by this stage, her work was noticed for its beauty and accuracy by Samuel Curtis, the publisher of the Botanical Magazine. She created notable full-sized illustrations for Curtis's magazine as well as for his Monograph on the Genus Camellia (1819) and his The Beauties of Flora . She was supported in her work by the architect Sir John Soane, who commissioned the watercolour The Flowers of Shakespeare (1835), which depicts a bust of the bard in Soane's collection surrounded by all the flowers mentioned in Shakespeare's works.

In 1807, Leigh married the actor and painter Alexander Pope, becoming his third wife. She taught painting, and her students included Princess Sophia of Gloucester and other members of the British aristocracy.

Pope died in London in 1838.