Very little biographical information is available about Percy Clarke. Alan McCulloch's Encyclopedia of Australian Artists notes only that he was active in 1880 and that he made forty original sketches for his book The New Chum in Australia ( 1886). Many of these sketches are held by the National Library of Australia. He is styled LL.B (Bachelor of Laws) and F.R.C.I. (Fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute) on the title page of The New Chum. This account of his travels in '"the land of the golden fleece" with his eyes open' describes his embarkation from Tilbury in February 1884 aboard the Kaisar-i-Hind and his arrival in Melbourne in April of that year. The Preface is dated, 1886 and has the address Cannon Hill, Hampstead.
