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The Art and Life of Kate Freeman Clark University of Mississippi eGrove Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors Theses Honors College) Spring 5-9-2020 Talent Against Tradition: The Art and Life of Kate Freeman Clark Grace Moorman University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, and the Women's Studies Commons Recommended Citation Moorman, Grace, "Talent Against Tradition: The Art and Life of Kate Freeman Clark" (2020). Honors Theses. 1355. https://egrove.olemiss.edu/hon_thesis/1355 This Undergraduate Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Honors College (Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College) at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Talent Against Tradition: The Art and Life of Kate Freeman Clark By Grace Moorman A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Mississippi in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. Oxford May 2020 Approved by ______________________________ Advisor: Dr. Kris Belden-Adams ______________________________ Reader: Dr. Louise Arizzoli ______________________________ Reader: Professor Virginia Chavis © 2020 Grace Moorman ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT GRACE MOORMAN: Talent Against Tradition: The Art and Life of Kate Freeman Clark (Under the Direction of Dr. Kris Belden-Adams) This paper explores the art of Holly Springs, Mississippi, painter Kate Freeman Clark, especially in association with the work of her teacher William Merritt Chase. Much of this paper is based on two extensive biographies: Cynthia Grant Tucker’s Kate Freeman Clark: A Painter Rediscovered, and Carolyn J. Brown’s The Artist’s Sketch: A Biography of Painter Kate Freeman Clark. Using a number of object studies, this paper explores the development of Clark’s work under the tutelage of Chase, highlighting similarities and differences that lead to the conclusion that Clark had a very real talent that she seemed reluctant to claim. This reluctance is also explored by considering what it meant to be an upper-class, Southern female artist in the early-20th century. Thus, I seek to understand the pressures Clark faced as she balanced maintaining the correct level of respectability as a single woman with her desire to create and produce magnificent art. By surveying Clark’s privileged upbringing in Holly Springs, Mississippi and New York City, her artwork produced under the tutelage of William Merritt Chase, and her eventual return to Holly Springs, I seek to also understand why she ultimately gave up her craft. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures................................................................................................................. v Introduction..................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter One: Genteel Beginnings................................................................................... 13 Chapter Two: The Art Students League and Wiles’s Summer School........................... 19 Chapter Three: Landscapes and the Shinnecock Summer School.................................. 26 Chapter Four: Still Life Studies and the Chase School. ................................................. 34 Chapter Five: Portrait Painting and Life After School.................................................... 40 Conclusions..................................................................................................................... 50 Appendix......................................................................................................................... 55 Bibliography.................................................................................................................... 56 Figures............................................................................................................................. 58 iv LIST OF FIGURES Introduction: Figure 1: Claude Monet, Impression Sunrise. Oil on canvas, 19 x 25 in., 1872. Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris, France. Figure 2: William Merritt Chase, Mrs. Chase in Prospect Park. Oil on canvas, 13.75 x 19.625 in., 1886. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York. Chapter One: Figure 3: Kate Freeman Clark, Untitled (Figure Study). Charcoal on paper, 24.5 x 18.25 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Chapter Two: Figure 4: Kate Freeman Clark, Seascape. Watercolor on paper, 7.25 x 7 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 5: Kate Freeman Clark, Various Watercolors. Watercolor on paper, n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Chapter Three: Figure 6: Kate Freeman Clark, Afternoon Tea or Idle Ease. Oil on canvas, 39 x 47 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 7: Kate Freeman Clark, Portrait on the Porch. Oil on canvas, 24 x 36 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 8: Kate Freeman Clark, Lady Embroidering. Oil on burlap, 36 x 34 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. v Figure 9: Kate Freeman Clark, Ladies with Orange Parasols. Oil on canvas, 30 x 34 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 10: Kate Freeman Clark, My First Sky, Shinnecock. Oil on canvas, 20 x 20 in., ca. 1896. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 11: William Merritt Chase, Sunlight and Shadows, Shinnecock Hills. Oil on canvas, 35 x 40 in., 1895. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Figure 12: Kate Freeman Clark, The Piazza. Oil on canvas, 34 x 38 in., 1902. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Chapter Four: Figure 13: William Merritt Chase, Still Life with Tangerines. Oil on canvas, 22 x 18 in., 1900. Private Collection. Figure 14: Kate Freeman Clark, Silver Watering Can. Oil on canvas, 22 x 27 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 15: Kate Freeman Clark, Bouquets of Orange and Blue. Oil on canvas, 30 x 38 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 16: William Merritt Chase, Still Life – Flowers. Oil on canvas, 32 x 22 in., n.d. Private Collection. Figure 17: Kate Freeman Clark, Untitled. Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 18: William Merritt Chase, Still-Life. Oil on canvas, 35 x 42 in., 1913. Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri. vi Chapter Five: Figure 19: Wilhelm Leibl, A Bavarian Girl. Oil on canvas, 23.625 x 15.75 in., 1897. Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg Germany. Figure 20: William Merritt Chase, My Daughter Dieudonnée (Alice Dieudonnée Chase). Oil on canvas, 74.75 x 36.5 in., 1902. Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York. Figure 21: Kate Freeman Clark, Lady in Yellow Dress. Oil on canvas, 72 x 36 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 22: John Singer Sargent, Portrait of Madame X. 92 x 43 in., 1883-84. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, New York. Figure 23: Kate Freeman Clark, Lady with Red Shawl. Oil on canvas, 39 x 19 in., n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 24: Kate Freeman Clark, Self-portrait. Oil on canvas, 26 x 22 in., n.d. n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 25: Kate Freeman Clark, “Shoveling the Snow.” Watercolor on paper, 24 x 21 in., n.d. n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Figure 26: Kate Freeman Clark, Blue Corner Portrait (The Elevated Train). Oil on canvas, 16 x 20 in., n.d. n.d. Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi. Conclusions: No Figures vii Introduction Between the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, the art world changed dramatically. In Europe, the Impressionists introduced magnificent works of art characterized by distinct brushstrokes and careful attention to the depiction of light. Masters like Berthe Morisot, Camille Pissarro, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, and Claude Monet created groundbreaking, convention-defying paintings in Paris in the 1870s and 1880s. While Impressionism had its roots in Paris, it also was practiced movement in the United States. At the beginning of the 19th century, American artists began to travel to France and practice with “European contemporaries–who were generally deemed to be French artists, and whose outstanding works were to be seen annually in the Salon exhibitions.”1 U.S. artists were introduced to the earlier movements, such as of Neoclassicism, but they also maintained connections with the styles of French Academies and Salons until they became obsolete. Then, the American artists began to consume examples of the European avant-garde. For this thesis, however, the importance of French art and its effect on the American art scene will be discussed in connection with the later-19th-century Impressionism movement, and its connection to the work of Holly 1 William H. Gerdts, “American Art and the French Experience,” in Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865-1915, 13-124 (Evanston: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992), 15.; At first, Americans art critics were generally ambivalent about French work. They called Neoclassicism “dry didacticism,” and declared Romanticism too violent. U.S. artists scoffed that
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