Clementine Hunter (1892 - 1987)

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No one is quite sure of the date, but it is believed that Clementine Hunter (pronounced "Clementeen") was born in December 1886 or January 1887 on a Natchitoches, Louisiana plantation called Hidden Hill. She died January 1, 1988 near Melrose Plantation where she had spent all but the first 15 years of her life. Clementine Hunter didn't begin painting until her mid-50s. Her husband, Emanuel, didn't encourage her. She had to work on the plantation. She gave birth to seven children, but only five lived. She worked on the plantation as a field hand and later as a domestic (housekeeper).

Clementine was a Creole, which means a mixture of five races: Austrian, French, Irish, Indian and African-American. She spoke a Creole dialect for many years until she married her second husband, Emanuel, who taught her English.

One of Louisiana's most famous painters, Miss Clementine Hunter painted her first painting on an old window shade. Her work is referred to as "Outsider Art," alluding to self-taught artists who paint primitive folk paintings. Her work is internationally known and highly collectible. She is the first African-American to exhibit in the New Orleans Museum of Art.

Favorite subjects included cotton picking (she actually enjoyed picking cotton, she said), wash day, pecan gathering, Saturday nights, church scenes and her favorite flowers, zinnias. Clementine Hunter painted what she knew and loved. Her works are simple. The style is known as naive or folk. "Naive" means innocent and inexperienced; "folk" meaning the way everyday people would paint.

She was illiterate so she couldn't sign her name to her paintings. She began to initial them by copying the initials of Cammy Henry, the owner of the plantation, but she worried that it would cause confusion, so she made a backwards C. Over the years the backward C worked its way across the H, until Hunter's identifying mark became uniquely her own.

A prolific painter, she painted over 4000 pictures in 35 years, her work focusing on recording daily plantation life and spiritual awakenings. Her paintings were principally in oil, and their themes include cotton picking, religious rituals and Saturday night parties. Art critic Francois Mignon refers to Clementine Hunter far excelling Grandma Moses in her media of expression and versatility in subject matter: "Although handicapped by lack of formal education, Clementine is definitely in the genius bracket, industrious to an unusual degree and gifted in any line of art and handcraft on which she may rivet her attention."