Harriet Candace "Rose" Clark (1852–1942) was an early 20th-century American painter and pictorial photographer. She is best known for the photographs she exhibited with Elizabeth Flint Wade under their joint names, either as "Rose Clark and Elizabeth Flint Wade" or as "Misses Clark and Wade".

Life

Harriet Candace "Rose" Clark was born in 1852 in La Port, Indiana. She was trained as a painter and taught painting and drawing in the 1880s at Saint Margaret’s School in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

. One of her students was

Mabel Dodge Luhan Mabel Evans Dodge Sterne Luhan (pronounced ''LOO-hahn''; née Ganson; February 26, 1879 – August 13, 1962) was a wealthy American patron of the arts, who was particularly associated with the Taos art colony. Early life Mabel Ganson was the heir ...

, and Clark later designed and restored Luhan’s villa in

Florence, Italy Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

. Beginning in 1890 she became active as a photographer and worked independently until 1898. Sometime in the late 1890s she met Wade, and the two began their twelve-year collaboration. About 1900 she began corresponding with

Alfred Stieglitz Alfred Stieglitz (January 1, 1864 – July 13, 1946) was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his 50-year career in making photography an accepted art form. In addition to his photography, Stieglitz was kno ...

, who encouraged and counseled her in her art. Stieglitz cited her, along with

Gertrude Käsebier Gertrude Käsebier (née Stanton; May 18, 1852 – October 12, 1934) was an American photographer. She was known for her images of motherhood, her portraits of Native Americans, and her promotion of photography as a career for women. Biography ...

Eva Watson-Schütze Eva Watson-Schütze (1867–1935) was an American photographer who was one of the founding members of the Photo-Secession. Life She was born as Eva Lawrence Watson in Jersey City, New Jersey on September 16, 1867. Her parents were Dr. John and ...

, and

Mary Devens Mary Devens (17 May 1857 – 13 March 1920) was an American photographer who was considered one of the ten most prominent pictorial photographers of the early 20th century. She was listed as a founding member of Alfred Stieglitz’s famed Photo-Se ...

, as one of the ten most prominent American pictorial photographers currently working in an article in ''Century Magazine'' in 1902. Clark apparently learned some of her photographic artistry from Käsebier; later in her life she said she owed Käsebier for "any success she had with a camera". About 1920 she moved from Buffalo to New York City, where she advertised her portraits and other paintings for substantial amounts (up to $2,000 for full-length portraits). She returned to Buffalo in 1926. Clark never married and little is known about her private life. She died in Buffalo on 28 November 1942 and was buried in La Porte. Her obituary focused on her work as a painter and did not mention anything about her photography.

Misses Clark and Wade

For reasons that have never been explained, Clark and Wade began exhibiting and publishing photos under their joint names beginning in 1899. For many years it was assumed that Clark was the artist who took all of the photographs and Wade was the technician who developed and printed them. Clark herself alluded to this type of arrangement in a letter to Stieglitz in 1900: “Mrs. Wade is very dilatory – and in order to get the photographs you ask for… I will have to prod her daily.” However, in a letter to

Frances Benjamin Johnston Frances Benjamin Johnston (January 15, 1864 – May 16, 1952) was an early American photographer and photojournalist whose career lasted for almost half a century. She is most known for her portraits, images of southern architecture, and various ...

that same year, Clark said “Both Miss Wade and myself have used cameras for perhaps ten years or more, but it is only two years ago that we took up portrait work as a business.” The concept of the artist/technician split in their partnership also might have come from the fact that Clark also had several solo exhibitions while Wade exhibited very little under her own name. There are, however, indications that Wade made aesthetic decisions as well as technical ones. She clearly had interest in and knowledge of aesthetics, and in several of her articles she gives advice on artistic direction. In addition, at least one article featured work under her name alone along with others under their joint names. Clark and Wade first exhibited under their joint names at shows at the Buffalo Society of Artists and the New York Camera Club in 1899. Over the next decade their photos were featured in major exhibitions around the world, including the

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, Photo Club de Paris,

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and the

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. In 1902 Stieglitz included a print by Clark and Wade in Series 2 of the landmark portfolio ''American Pictorial Photography''. Printed in a limited edition of 150 copies, the portfolio was intended to show only the best photography according to Stieglitz’s discerning eye. Their collaboration apparently ended around 1910. The reason for the dissolution of their joint effort is not known, although it might have been due to a change in the health of Wade, who died five years later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Rose American photographers 1852 births 1942 deaths American women painters 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women photographers 20th-century American photographers 19th-century American women photographers 19th-century American photographers