![]() ![]() It was Kinsey’s old discarded brushes and paint tubes that became the materials for Clementine’s first works of art.įrancois Mignon, a prolific, gifted writer and member of the artist’s colony at Melrose relates the following endearing incident: She created beautiful quilts, lace curtains, and dolls, but was also known for her delicious Creole dishes.īy the 1930s Melrose Plantation became somewhat of an artist’s retreat that hosted some pretty famous names from the art and literary world: William Faulkner, Lyle Saxon, Margaret Sullavan, Richard Avedon, Rachel Field, Ada Jack Carver, Roark Bradford, and Alberta Kinsey. Clementine was a skilled seamstress and cook. She was married and widowed and married again, giving birth to a total of 7 children at Melrose, two of whom were stillborn. Clementine worked the fields until the 1920s when she was brought into the main house to cook and clean. ![]() A place she would call home for the rest of her life. Clementine received less than a year of formal education and never learned to read or write, but her memories of early life in the fields were filled with a sense of belonging and community that would later become themes of her work.Īt the age of 15 Clementine and her family moved to the Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Her desire to learn how to read and write was not enough to keep her in such a cruel and demeaning environment, so she fled the school house to work in the fields, picking cotton and harvesting pecans with her father. ![]() At the age of 5 Clementine had her first and last experience with the segregated school system of the South. Shortly after Clementine was born her family set out to find more humane working and living conditions. Her parents were farm workers who worked the fields at Hidden Hill Plantation. Clementine Hunter was born in central Louisiana in 1886 into a french-creole family. She was the first of seven children. Over the course of her life, Clementine produced between four and five thousand paintings! Her bright and colorful paintings have preserved the past for generations to come.It is an honor to introduce you to the wonderful art of Ms. Today, the most well-known display of Clementine Hunter art prints can be found in the African House on the Melrose Plantation where in 1955, Clementine painted a mural depicting early plantation life. Known as Louisiana’s most famous female artist, she was also the first African-American artist to have her paintings displayed in a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Sadly, she wasn’t allowed to attend the exhibit with the other patrons and had to wait and visit after hours. She also had a habit of painting on anything she could get her hands on, such as jugs, bottles, and cardboard boxes. Plantation Life Painted on a Window ShadeĪs with many folk artists, Clementine Hunter preferred to paint from memory and mostly depicted life on a plantation in the early 1900s, such as picking cotton, washing clothes, and water baptisms. In the beginning her paintings were sold for as little as 25 cents, but by the time of her death in 1988, her works were being sold for thousands of dollars. She then presented the painting to the Melrose Plantation curator, Francois Mignon, who supported her efforts by supplying her with more paint and brushes and later promoting her art and selling them at the local drug store.Īlthough today Clementine Hunter is considered a legendary folk artist, most of her life was spent in poverty. Clementine asked if she could have them and, using a window shade as a canvas, painted her first picture, which depicted a baptism scene on the Cane River. There, she spent most of her life picking cotton before later becoming a cook in the kitchens.Ĭlementine Hunter didn’t start painting until she was in her early fifties, after another artist, Alberta Kinsey, left her brushes and discarded paint tubes during a visit to Melrose Plantation. Due to the harsh conditions of Hidden Hill, her father moved their family to Melrose Plantation when Clementine was fifteen years old. “ Painting is a lot harder than pickin’ cotton. Cotton’s right there for you to pull off the stalk, but to paint, you got to sweat your mind.” ~Clementine HunterĬlementine Hunter was born December 1886 in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, where her father worked as a field hand on Hidden Hill Plantation. Check out the free Clementine Hunter biography below! American folk artist, Clementine Hunter is a great choice for your homeschool artist study this Black History month. ![]()
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