Clementine Hunter – American Folk Artist

“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 Hunter was born December 1886 in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, where her father worked as a field hand on Hidden Hill Plantation. Due to the harsh conditions of Hidden Hill, her father moved their family to Melrose Plantation when Clementine was fifteen years old. There, she spent most of her life picking cotton before later becoming a cook in the kitchens.

Zinnias

Clementine 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. 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.

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.

Picking Cotton

Although today she is considered a legendary folk artist, most of her life was spent in poverty. 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.

Plantation life painted on a window shade.

As with many folk artists, Clementine 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. She also had a habit of painting on anything she could get her hands on, such as jugs, bottles, and cardboard boxes.

Canasta Players

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.

African House

Today, the most well-known display of her artwork can be found in the African House on the Melrose Plantation where in 1955, Clementine painted a mural depicting early plantation life. 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.