Age of English artist (3)
I believe the answer is:
era
'age' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'english artist' is the wordplay.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'artist' becomes 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts).
'e'+'ra'='ERA'
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for era that I've seen before include "Important historical period" , "Significant time" , "Distinct period in history" , "Important time" , "Special time" .)