Girl welcomes a tense English artist (7)
I believe the answer is:
matisse
'artist' is the definition.
(Henri Matisse)
'girl welcomes a tense english' is the wordplay.
'girl' becomes 'miss' ('miss' can be a synonym of 'girl'**).
'welcomes' indicates putting letters inside (in sense of 'invites in').
'tense' becomes 't' (abbreviation used in many dictionaries).
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'a'+'t'='at'
'miss' placed around 'at' is 'matiss'.
'matiss'+'e'='MATISSE'
(Other definitions for matisse that I've seen before include "Henri ---, Twentieth Century painter" , "French painter, Henri, d.1954" , "French impressionist" , "Henri --, French artist" , "Henri -, Fr. artist" .)