Clementine Hunter (pronounced Clementeen) (late December 1886 or early January 1887 – January 1, 1988) was a self-taught Black
folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...
ist from the
Cane River
Cane River (''Rivière aux Cannes'') is a riverU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed June 3, 2011 formed from a portion of the Red River that is located in Natchitoches Pa ...
region of
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
, who lived and worked on
Melrose Plantation
Melrose Plantation, also known as Yucca Plantation, is a National Historic Landmark located in the unincorporated community of Melrose in Natchitoches Parish in north central Louisiana. This is one of the largest plantations in the United State ...
.
Hunter was born into a
Louisiana Creole
Louisiana Creole ( lou, Kréyòl Lalwizyàn, links=no) is a French-based creole language spoken by fewer than 10,000 people, mostly in the state of Louisiana. It is spoken today by people who may racially identify as White, Black, mixed, and N ...
family at Hidden Hill Plantation near
Cloutierville, in
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. She started working as a farm laborer when young, and never learned to read or write. In her fifties, she began to sell her paintings, which soon gained local and national attention for their complexity in depicting Black Southern life in the early 20th century.
Initially she sold her first paintings for as little as 25 cents. But by the end of her life, her work was being exhibited in museums and sold by dealers for thousands of dollars. Clementine Hunter produced an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 paintings in her lifetime. Hunter was granted an honorary
Doctor of Fine Arts
Doctor of Fine Arts (D.F.A.) is a doctoral degree in fine arts, may be given as an honorary degree (a degree ''honoris causa'') or an earned professional degree (in the UK).
Description
Doctoral programmes leading to DFAs are of equivalent leve ...
degree by
Northwestern State University of Louisiana
Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSU) is a public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the Univer ...
in 1986, and she is the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the present-day
New Orleans Museum of Art
The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the ...
. In 2013, director
Robert Wilson presented a new opera about her, entitled ''Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter'', at
Montclair State University
Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...
in New Jersey.
[Jennifer Moses]
"Looking for Clementine Hunter's Louisiana"
''The New York Times'', June 16, 2013, accessed January 17, 2015.
Early life
![Clementine Hunter mural at African House - Baptism](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2f/Clementine_Hunter_mural_at_African_House_-_Baptism.jpg)
Clementine Hunter was born in late December 1886 or early January 1887
[Shelby R. Gilley, ''Painting by Heart: The Life and Art of Clementine Hunter, Louisiana Folk Artist''. St. Emma Press (2000).] at Hidden Hill Plantation, near
Cloutierville in
Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana.
["Clementine Hunter biography](_blank)
Nader's Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana. She was the first of seven children
born to Janvier Reuben (though Clementine Hunter called him John
) and Mary Antoinette Adams.
Hunter's siblings were named Maria, Ida, Rosa, Edward, Simon, and John.
Hunter's maternal grandmother Idole, an enslaved Black and Native American woman, was born in Virginia and brought to Louisiana.
Her maternal grandfather was called Billy Zack Adams.
Hunter's paternal grandfather, who was of mixed African, French, and Irish descent, traded horses during the Civil War,
but died before she was born.
Hunter knew her paternal grandmother well, a Black and Native American woman who she called MéMé (pronounced May–May).
Her parents were married on October 15, 1890, in Cloutierville at the town's
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
church
St. John the Baptist
She was baptized a
Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
on March 19, 1887, in Cloutierville, and it is known that she was about three months old.
Although her exact date of birth is unknown, she said she was born around Christmas.
She went by the name Clémence for the first part of her life, was baptized Clementiam
and changed her name to Clementine after moving to Melrose Plantation.
[James Lynwood Wilson, ''Clementine Hunter: American Folk Artist'', Pelican Publishing Company (1990), . Retrieved June 9, 2011.] Her family called her by the nickname ''Tébé'', the French for "little baby," a nickname she carried into adulthood.
Hunter moved at Cloutierville when she was around five years old and sent to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church School.
The school was segregated and enforced harsh rules, which Hunter cited as the reason she left school at a young age.
She attended school for less than a year, and never formally learnt to read or write.
Hunter began working in the fields at eight years old, picking cotton alongside her father.
Throughout her life she moved around in the Cane River Valley while her father looked for work.
At certain points she lived in
Robeline,
Cypress, and
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
.
In 1902, around the age of fifteen, Hunter moved to
Melrose Plantation
Melrose Plantation, also known as Yucca Plantation, is a National Historic Landmark located in the unincorporated community of Melrose in Natchitoches Parish in north central Louisiana. This is one of the largest plantations in the United State ...
.
Hunter's father, Janvier "John" Reuben was hired as a wage laborer by John H. Henry, the current owner of Melrose.
Hunter also worked for a wage as a agricultural laborer, harvesting 150 to 200 pounds of cotton a day, making 75 cents.
In the fall, she would also harvest pecans, working six days a week for months of the year.
While in her teens, Hunter took informal classes at night with other workers at Melrose Plantation.
Her mother, Mary Antoinette Reuben, died in 1905 at Melrose.
When Hunter was about twenty in 1907, she give birth to her first child, Joseph Dupree, called Frenchie.
Hunter's first partner was Charles Dupree, a Creole man about fifteen years Hunter's senior.
Charles is rumored to have built a steam engine with having only seen a picture and was well known for his highly skilled labor.
Their second child, Cora, was born a few years later.
Charles Dupree and Clementine Hunter never married, and Dupree died in 1914.
In 1924, Clementine married Emmanuel Hunter, a Creole woodchopper at Melrose six years her senior.
Until Clementine Hunter married Emmanuel, she spoke only Creole French, and he taught her American English.
The two lived together in a workers' cabin at Melrose Plantation and had five children, although two were stillborn.
Hunter's children were named Agnes, King, and Mary, although she called Mary "Jackie".
On the morning before giving birth to one of her children, she harvested 78 pounds of cotton, went home and called for the midwife.
She was back working a few days later.
In the late 1920s, Hunter began working as cook and housekeeper for Cammie Henry, the wife of John H. Henry.
[Campbell Robertson]
"For a Longtime Forger, Adding One Last Touch"
''The New York Times'' (June 8, 2011). Retrieved June 8, 2011. She was known for her talent adapting traditional Creole recipes, sewing intricate clothes and dolls, and tending to the house's vegetable garden.
Before long, Melrose evolved into a salon for artists and writers in this period, hosted by Cammie Henry.
In the late 1930s, Clementine Hunter began to formally paint, using discarded tubes from the visiting artists at Melrose.
In the early 1940s, Hunter's husband Emmanuel became terminally ill and bedridden.
She was now the sole financial provider for the family, working full time, while caring for Emmanuel, and painting late at night.
Emmanuel died in 1944, leaving Hunter to work and care for her children alone.
During this period in the early 1940s, Hunter adopted Mary Francis LaCour, an eleven-year-old girl whose parents couldn't care for her.
Hunter cared for the girl, teaching her how to paint, the two displaying her creations outside of Hunter's home.
In her teens, Mary Francis moved to California to live with her father.
In 1951, Mary Francis died at less than twenty years old.
Painting career
![Clementine Hunter - The Wash - 91](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Clementine_Hunter_-_The_Wash_-_91.88.2_-_Minneapolis_Institute_of_Arts.jpg)
Hunter has become one of the most well-known self-taught artists. Hunter is described as a memory painter because she documented Black Southern life in the Cane River Valley in the early 20th century. She was entirely self-taught and received almost no formal education, art or otherwise.
Although she was first recognized for her painting skills in 1939, Hunter speaks about painting long before then.
["Defendant Admits to Selling Counterfeit Clementine Hunter Paintings"](_blank)
KATC, Lafayette, Louisiana (June 6, 2011). . Her most famous work depicts brightly colored depictions of important events like funerals, baptisms, and weddings and scenes of plantation labor like picking cotton or pecans, and domestic labor. However, Hunter's paintings vary in subject and style, including many abstract paintings and still life paintings of zinnias.
Hunter painted from memory, stating: "I just get it in my mind and I just go ahead and paint but I can't look at nothing and paint. No trees, no nothing. I just make my own tree in my mind, that's the way I paint."
Cammie Henry created an artists' colony after the death of her husband at Melrose Plantation.
Numerous artists and writers visited, including
Lyle Saxon,
Roark Bradford
Roark Whitney Wickliffe Bradford (August 21, 1896, Lauderdale County, Tennessee — November 13, 1948, New Orleans, Louisiana) was an American short story writer and novelist.
Life
He attended University of California, Berkeley, and served as ...
,
Alexander Woollcott
Alexander Humphreys Woollcott (January 19, 1887 – January 23, 1943) was an American drama critic and commentator for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, a member of the Algonquin Round Table, an occasional actor and playwright, and a prominent radio ...
,
Rose Franken
Rose Franken (December 28, 1895 – June 22, 1988), was an American writer and playwright best known for her '' Claudia'' stories, plus the books, films, and plays based on them.
Early years
Born Rose Dorothy Lewin in Gainesville, Texas, Franken ...
,
Gwen Bristow
Gwen Bristow (September 16, 1903 – August 17, 1980) was an American writer and journalist.
Early life
Bristow was born in Marion, South Carolina in 1903 to Baptist minister Louis Judson Bristow and Caroline Cornelia Winkler. Bristow became in ...
, and
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon (May 15, 1923 – October 1, 2004) was an American fashion and portrait photographer. He worked for ''Harper's Bazaar'', ''Vogue'' and ''Elle'' specializing in capturing movement in still pictures of fashion, theater and danc ...
.
Frequently, the paint and brushes left by
artist
Alberta Kinsey are cited as the first materials Hunter used to paint with on a window shade.
[Janet McConnaughey]
"La man admits selling forged folk artist paintings"
''The Washington Examiner'' (June 6, 2011). Retrieved June 8, 2011.[Ruth Laney]
Clementine Hunter Fakes"
''Country Roads'', Baton Rouge, Louisiana (January 2010). Retrieved June 8, 2011. However, it's clear from Hunter's textile work that she was producing narrative and expressionist work before painting.
Additionally, Hunter's own accounts of her early career contradict the story of Kinsey's influence, Hunter has spoken about painting earlier than 1939.
![Clementine Hunter - Picking Cotton - 91](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e2/Clementine_Hunter_-_Picking_Cotton_-_91.88.1_-_Minneapolis_Institute_of_Arts.jpg)
Hunter began selling paintings after the death of her husband, Emmanuel Hunter.
On the outside of the cabin where she lived was a sign that read: "Clementine Hunter, Artist. 25 cents to Look."
Clementine Hunter's first shows were in 1945 in Rosenwald Grant, Brownwood, and Waco Texas.
In 1949, a show of Hunter's paintings at the New Orleans Arts and Crafts Show garnered attention outside of the Cane River Valley.
An article was published about Hunter in
''Look'' magazine in June 1953, giving her national exposure.
Hunter gained support from numerous individuals associated with Melrose Plantation, including François Mignon, a friend of Cammie Henry and Clementine Hunter.
He supplied her with paint and materials, and promoted her widely.
Hunter's paintings were displayed in the local drugstore, where they were sold for one dollar.
In 1956, Hunter and François Mignon coauthored ''Melrose Plantation Cookbook'', featuring photographs of Melrose Plantation, illustrations drawn by Hunter, and recipes.
Hunter was skilled at reinterpreting traditional dishes, which were passed down in her family by oral tradition.
Hunter's largest work is a series of murals in the African House at Melrose Plantation. Built the early 19th century by enslaved people at Melrose Plantation, the African House is a Creole hybridization of various African, French, Native American building traditions. However, little is known about its construction and early uses, however it is known that it served as a storehouse and during Cammie Henry's ownership as a residence for artists. In 1949, Clementine Hunter's first show in the Cane River Valley was hosted by Mignon in the upstairs area of the African House.
Hunter painted Murals in the Yucca house and the main Melrose Plantation house.
In 1955, Hunter and François Mignon collaborated to produce the series of paneled murals that depict the history of the Cane River Valley and reflect the artist's life.
The mural consists of nine rectangular panels, each painted in Hunter's home studio.
Completed over three months, the murals were finished Hunter was sixty-eight years old.
Hunter's paintings changed throughout her lifetime. Her early work, such as "Cane River Baptism" from 1950, features more earth tones and muted colors.
Before the patronage and support from François Mignon and others, Hunter used paint left by visiting artists at Melrose Plantation, therefore she was working within other artists' palettes. Additionally, Hunter would frequently thin out her supply of paint with turpentine, creating more of a watercolor effect, which caused many Hunter scholars to believe she had a watercolor experimental phase.
Beginning in the 1950s, her painting style was altered by arthritis in her hands.
From this period on, she leaned more towards abstract and impressionist work, with less fine detail, because it was difficult for her to paint.
In 1962, her friend James Pipes Register encouraged her to become even more abstract, painting works like ''Clementine Makes a Quilt''.
However, by 1964, Hunter returned to more narrative works.
In the 1980s, as she approached one hundred years old, she began painting on smaller, more handheld objects like jugs.
In late 1971, sixty of Hunter's paintings were shown at an exhibition at Louisiana State University.
Quiltmaking
Hunter lived in communities of Black sharecroppers and tenant farmers where she learned to sew clothes and household items.
Before she began painting, she would sew clothes for family, would make quilts, weave baskets.
François Mignon recognized Hunter's talents with fabric and sewing before he saw any of her painted works.
[Folder 260, Page 118-19. in the Francois Mignon Papers #3889, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/03889/#d1e91] On December 19, 1939, Mignon recorded in his journals that Clementine (Mignon called her Clemence) first showed him dolls she created with embroidered features.
Additionally, he wrote that she was exceptionally talented at making fringe and can spin cotton.
James Register also recorded Clementine Hunter's exceptional skill at making fringe in an article in the ''Natchitoches Times'' in 1972.
She could also make hand-tied lace curtains.
Hunter's quilts and tapestries are clear examples of her artistic talent before she began painting, and feature subjects and her color palette that are central to the majority of her artwork. Many of her quilts are titled "Melrose Quilt" or "Melrose Plantation" Textile or Tapestry as many of them depict buildings on the Melrose grounds. The Melrose Plantation Textile, which is hand appliquéd and sewn, is from 1938 or 1939, and is thematically similar to her painted works.
Most of Hunter's textile work is owned in private collections; however, a photograph of Hunter in her home shows her using one of her Chevron as a couch covering. Each square is hand sewn together. Many of Hunter's quilts are not batted, which signals that they are designed to hang as a tapestry, rather than serve a household function.
Hunter made several quilts that are more abstract. On
Chevron Quiltis at the
New Orleans Museum of Art
The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the ...
.
Some of the squares of chevron are alternating solid colors, while other squares are pieces of scrap patterned cloth.
Although Hunter's abstract paintings made in 1962 and 1936 are generally regarded as a break in her canon, her early textile work and paintings play with abstraction and impressionism.
Additionally, Shelby Gilley's collection of Hunter's "Crazy Quilts" or Chevron quilts are dated as 1960, and the Chevron Quilt at the New Orleans Museum of Art is dated 1951, before her collaboration with James Register.
Legacy and honors
A director of the
Museum of American Folk Art
The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...
in Washington, D.C. described Hunter as "the most celebrated of all Southern contemporary painters."
![Grave of Clementine Hunter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Grave_of_Clementine_Hunter.jpg)
Hunter was the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the Delgado Museum (now the
New Orleans Museum of Art
The New Orleans Museum of Art (or NOMA) is the oldest fine arts museum in the city of New Orleans. It is situated within City Park, a short distance from the intersection of Carrollton Avenue and Esplanade Avenue, and near the terminus of the ...
). In February 1985, the museum hosted ''A New Orleans Salute to Clementine Hunter's Centennial,'' an exhibit in honor of her one-hundredth birthday. She achieved significant recognition during her lifetime, including an invitation to the White House from
U.S. President
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
and letters from both President
Ronald Reagan and
U.S. Senator J. Bennett Johnston, Jr.
Radcliffe College included Hunter in its ''Black Women Oral History Project,'' published in 1980.
An interview with Hunter is part of the Black Women Oral History Project records, 1976–1997, housed at Harvard University, Radcliffe Institute, Schlesinger Library. In the Mildred H. Bailey Collection of Interviews at
Northwestern State University of Louisiana
Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSU) is a public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the Univer ...
, there are digitized interviews with Hunter and those closest to her.
Northwestern State University of Louisiana
Northwestern State University of Louisiana (NSU) is a public university primarily situated in Natchitoches, Louisiana, with a nursing campus in Shreveport and general campuses in Leesville/Fort Polk and Alexandria. It is a part of the Univer ...
granted her an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree in 1986.
The following year, Louisiana governor
Edwin Edwards designated her as an honorary colonel, a state honor, and aide-de-camp.
A biography, ''Clementine Hunter: Cane River Artist'' (2012), was co-written by Tom Whitehead, a retired journalism professor who knew Hunter well. \
Hunter has been the subject of biographies and artist studies, and inspired other works of art. In 2013, composer
Robert Wilson presented a new opera about her: ''Zinnias: the Life of Clementine Hunter'', at
Montclair State University
Montclair State University (MSU) is a public research university in Montclair, New Jersey, with parts of the campus extending into Little Falls. As of fall 2018, Montclair State was, by enrollment, the second largest public university in New ...
in New Jersey.
Shinnerrie Jackson's one-woman musical ''Ain't I a Woman?'' honors the lives of four influential African American women, including Hunter.
Hunter's work can be found in numerous museums such as the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, the American Folk Art Museum, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Louisiana State Museum.
''Clementine Hunter's World'' is a 2017 documentary directed by noted Hunter scholar Art Shiver.
The film celebrates Hunter's life and artwork through the lens of photographs, oral histories, and the newly resorted African House Murals.
In addition to the film, the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture created an exhibition centering on Hunter called "Clementine Hunter: Life on Melrose Plantation."
According to Smithsonian American Art curator Tuliza Fleming, the 22 works by Hunter is the largest collection by a single artist at the museum.
In 2019, Louisiana State Legislators passed a resolution that designated October 1 as Clementine Hunter Day.
Loletta Jones-Wynder, the director of th
Creole Heritage Centerat Northwestern State University of Louisiana, created the resolution to honor Hunter's legacy and impact on the State of Louisiana.
Forgeries
As Hunter became increasingly more famous over her lifetime, and began selling her painted works for more money, forged paintings started becoming a problem.
Relatives of Clementine Hunter and Cammie Henry created forgeries, although very few.
[John Ed Bradley]
"The Talented Mr. Toye"
''Garden & Gun'' (April/May 2010). Retrieved June 13, 2011. Although there were many Hunter fakes, William and Beryl Toye were the most prolific.
In 1974,
William J. Toye was charged with forging twenty-two Hunter paintings by the
police.
Toye was able to pass these paintings off as Hunter originals because he recreated her distinctive signature, a backwards C and an H interlocking.
William Toye's wife Beryl claimed that she purchased the paintings directly from Hunter at Melrose Plantation in the 1960s.
Toye's case never went to trial, despite verification from Hunter herself that she had not painted the works.
In 1996, Toye was accused of forging Matisse and Degas paintings, selling them to an auction house in Baton Rouge.
Toye likely began forging Hunter paintings again in 1999, selling them or using them as a form of payment for doctor's bills or as collateral for a bank loan until the mid 2000s.
Toye sold many his fakes to New Orleans art and antiques dealer,
Robert Lucky Jr.
Lucky intentionally lied to his customers about the origins of fifty to one hundred Hunter paintings, reselling paintings that were returned as fakes.
In 2000, Robert Lucky Jr. took payment for a Hunter painting that he never gave to the customer, and was charged and arrested.
Some noted Hunter collectors caught on his scheme, such as Robert Ryan who returned some paintings bought from Lucky, demanding a refund.
Shelby Gilley and Tom Whitehead, scholars, collectors, and friends of Hunter, also figured out that the bulk of Hunter fakes were coming from Lucky, leading them to open an investigation.
Whitehead had bought a total of seventeen fake Clementine Hunter paintings from Lucky, spending a total of $55,000.
In 2005, Tom Whitehead, Shelby Gilley, and Jack Brittain hired Frank Preusser, an art authentication expert, to investigate these forgeries.
Preusser analyzed the materials used in the paintings in question, compared to those sold by Lucky and determined that they were in fact inconsistent materials.
The investigation uncovered paintings sold by William Toye, which were consistent with the fakes sold by Robert Lucky Jr., as Toye began selling the fakes directly to buyers in 2005.
At that time, Beryl Toye was selling Hunter fakes for $3,500 a painting at a New Orleans auction house.
In 2009,
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
Special Agent Randolph Deaton assembled a team of noted art authentication experts, to begin a formal investigation into the forgeries.
The team included Joseph Barabe of McCrone Associates, a scientific analysis company and James Martin a forensic art expert of Orion Analytical.
The group used several methods to analyze Hunter's original works to compare to the alleged forgeries, including an analysis of pigment cracks, paint age, painting style.
However, one of the most important clues that a painting was a Hunter original were her fingerprints on the back of the oil paintings.
Hunter did not use an easel, so the backs and borders of her paintings are smudged with paint, unlike the forgeries by Toye who used an easel to paint his fakes.
In September 2009, the FBI determined that William Toye was the one producing the forgeries and raided his home.
Toye, who was accused of selling forged paintings three times over the course of four decades, pleaded guilty in federal court on June 6, 2011.
The couple was charged with mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail fraud.
The price for Hunter paintings ranged between a few thousand dollars to $20,000, according to Tom Whitehead.
[Richard Burgess]
"Guilty plea in art forgeries"
''The Advocate Arcadiana'' (June 7, 2011). Retrieved June 15, 2011. Both William and Beryl Toye were sentenced to two years probation and a $426,393 fine for the cost of the fakes sold.
Robert Lucky Jr. was charged with mail fraud and pled guilty, was sentenced to twenty-five months in prison and a $326,893 fine.
This investigation was crucial to protecting Hunter's legacy, as many of the fakes were shown in museums in private collections around the world.
Additionally, very few FBI forgery cases investigate folk artists or outsider artists, and so this case helped to legitimize the value of self-taught artists.
Selected works and collections
*''
Funeral Procession
A funeral procession is a procession, usually in motor vehicles or by foot, from a funeral home or place of worship to the cemetery or crematorium. In earlier times the deceased was typically carried by male family members on a bier or in a cof ...
'', ca. 1950,
Savannah College of Art and Design
Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private nonprofit art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France.
Founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the Uni ...
*''
Untitled
Untitled or (Untitled) may refer to:
Artworks
* '' Untitled (2004)'', by Banksy
* ''Untitled'' (1982 painting), by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
* ''Untitled'' (Devil), a 1982 painting by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
* ''Untitled ...
'', 1981,
National Museum of Women in the Arts
The National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), located in Washington, D.C., is "the first museum in the world solely dedicated" to championing women through the arts. NMWA was incorporated in 1981 by Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay. Since openin ...
, Washington, D.C.
*''The Wash,'' ca. 1950s,
Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
, Minneapolis, MN
*''Picking Cotton'', ca. 1950s,
Minneapolis Institute of Art
The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...
, Minneapolis, MN
*''The Annunciation and the Adoration of the Wise Men,'' 1957,
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
*''Cotton Pickin','' 1948,
American Folk Art Museum
The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...
, New York, NY
*''Saturday Night,'' 1965,
American Folk Art Museum
The American Folk Art Museum is an art museum in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, at 2, Lincoln Square, Columbus Avenue at 66th Street. It is the premier institution devoted to the aesthetic appreciation of folk art and creative expressions of ...
, New York, NY
*''Funeral,'' 1957,
Muscarelle Museum of Art
The Muscarelle Museum of Art is a university museum affiliated with the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. While the Museum only dates to 1983, the university art collection has been in existence since its first gift – a por ...
, Williamsburg, VA
*''Sugar Cane Syrup Makin','' 1979,
Muscarelle Museum of Art
The Muscarelle Museum of Art is a university museum affiliated with the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. While the Museum only dates to 1983, the university art collection has been in existence since its first gift – a por ...
, Williamsburg, VA
*''Baptism,'' Late 1950s,
Muscarelle Museum of Art
The Muscarelle Museum of Art is a university museum affiliated with the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. While the Museum only dates to 1983, the university art collection has been in existence since its first gift – a por ...
, Williamsburg, VA
*''Window Shade,'' 1950s,
National Museum of African American History and Culture
The National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) is a Smithsonian Institution museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was established in December 2003 and opened its permanent home in ...
, Washington, D.C.
Studies and other related books
* Mildred Hart Bailey, ''Four Women of Cane River'' (1980)
*Shelby R. Gilley, ''Painting by Heart: The Life and Art of Clementine Hunter, Louisiana Folk Artist'' (2000), St. Emma Press
*Clementine Hunter, ''Clementine Hunter: A Sketchbook'' (2014), University of New Orleans Press.
*Mary E. Lyons, ''Talking with Tebé'' (1998)'','' Houghton Mifflin.
*François Mignon, illustrated by Clementine Hunter, ''Melrose Plantation Cookbook'' (1956), ASIN B000CS68QA
* Art Shiver, Tom Whitehead (editors), ''Clementine Hunter: The African House Murals'' (2005), Northwestern State University of Louisiana Press.
* Art Shiver, Tom Whitehead (co-authors), ''Clementine Hunter Her Life and Art'' (2012), LSU Press.
*James Register, illustrated by Clementine Hunter, ''The Joyous Coast'' (1971), Mid-South Press, Shreveport, Louisiana
*James Wilson, ''Clementine Hunter: American Folk Artist'' (1990), Pelican Publishing Company
See also
*
Mose Tolliver
*
Outsider art
Outsider art is art made by self-taught or supposedly naïve artists with typically little or no contact with the conventions of the art worlds. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrate ...
*
Folk Art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tr ...
*
Southern art
*
Melrose Plantation
Melrose Plantation, also known as Yucca Plantation, is a National Historic Landmark located in the unincorporated community of Melrose in Natchitoches Parish in north central Louisiana. This is one of the largest plantations in the United State ...
References
External links
* Jennifer Moses
"Looking for Clementine Hunter's Louisiana"''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' (June 14, 2013). Retrieved June 17, 2013
"Clementine Hunter: A Sketchbook" University of New Orleans Press/Ogden Museum of Southern Art
*
* Ashleigh Barice
"Artist in focus: Clementine Hunter" Art UK, March 9, 2017
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunter, Clementine
1880s births
1988 deaths
Year of birth uncertain
African-American women artists
Outsider artists
Women outsider artists
20th-century American women artists
Artists from Louisiana
20th-century American painters
Painters from Louisiana
People from Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana
American centenarians
African-American centenarians
Women centenarians
African-American Catholics
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American painters
American quilters