Henry Cliffe was a painter, printmaker, sculptor and teacher.
Born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, he joined the army in 1939, where he met fellow artist William Scott. After the Second World War, in 1946, Cliffe studied painting and lithography at Bath Academy of Art, Corsham, where he later taught and ran the print studio (1950-81).
Cliffe's career started strong, with his representation at international exhibitions in 1952 in France, Germany, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Japan and the United States. A group of his lithographs were chosen to be shown at the 'International Biennial of Contemporary Colour Lithography' in Cincinnati in 1954, the year he was also first shown at the Venice Biennale alongside Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, and Ben Nicholson. A high point in his early career came when Cliffe was one of only five artists to be exhibited at the British Pavilion during the 30th Biennale (1960).
His early works were influenced by both Surrealism and the neo-romantic English landscape school of the 1940s. Throughout the 1950s Cliffe’s work became more concerned with the relationship between the human figure and the landscape.
From his first exhibition in 1956 at the Redfern Gallery, London, Cliffe had regular solo exhibitions in Bath, Bristol, London, and the USA. In 1960 the Philadelphia Print Club awarded him first purchase prize and in 1961 he was awarded the Ford Foundation Fellowship by the Pratt Institute of Graphic Art, New York.
Cliffe's work is represented in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; Cincinnati Art Museum; Museum of Modern Art, New York; City Art Gallery; Bristol; and the University of Bristol.
