Clementine Hunter at Melrose Plantation, Natchitoches, LA.
Mrs Hunter began as a field hand at Melrose when she was twelve years old. Originally born at Hidden Hill Plantation in 1887, her family moved to Melrose as sharecroppers for the Henry family. Later she became a housekeeper, but it was while she was a cook that she found some discarded paints left behind by an artist at Melrose. Those discarded paints changed her life. Mrs Clementine Hunter’s paintings continue to touch those who view and admire her work each day.
She was a self-taught, primitive artist. Her unique African-American perspective, considered “insider art,” tells stories that historians overlooked while documenting plantation life. She captured the community of workers, the life of the “gears” that make plantations successful and prosperous.
In 1955, at the age of 68, Mrs Hunter completed her most famous work, the African House Murals. They were painted with oil on plywood and installed on the second floor of the African House at Melrose Plantation.
Original Color Photograph by Tom Whitehead,
Courtesy Melrose Plantation,
Re-touched Black and White Copy Image by Sohn Fine Art, Lenox, MA
