Clara Taggart MacChesney

Clara Taggart MacChesney
Clara Taggart MacChesney 1899
Born1860 (1860)
Brownsville, California
DiedAugust 6, 1928(1928-08-06) (aged 67–68)
London, England
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainting

Clara Taggart MacChesney (sometimes McChesney) (1860/61-1928) was an American painter and writer known for her figurative painting, landscapes and “scenes and people of Holland.”[1]: 458 

Early years

Born in Brownsville, California, her family moved to Oakland when she was young where her father, Joseph B. McChesney, was principal of Oakland High School.[2]

MacChesney began her art studies in San Francisco with Virgil Williams at the California School of Design, before moving to New York City to continue her studies with H. S. Mowbray and J. C. Beckwith.[3] This was followed by a move to Paris, where she enrolled in the Académie Colarossi and studied with Courtois.[4]

MacChesney exhibited watercolors at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and was awarded a medal for her work. An article in The San Francisco Call announced that she had placed two paintings in the 1900 World's Exposition in Paris, and remarked that: "Both American and foreign artists have referred to Miss McChesney as 'America's foremost woman painter.' "[5] She would later exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, winning a bronze medal.[6]

She also wrote and published pieces for New York art publications, “frequently on her lifelong friend Elizabeth Nourse.”[1]: 458 

MacChesney lived in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the 1920s. She wrote about Carmel-by-the-Sea and its pageant and drama in the New-York Tribune.[7]

Paints on canvas; paints in words. Portraits her specialty and has turned the trick of feature work on both New York Times and Tribune. Twenty-two times across the ocean and maintains a studio in Carmel.

— George Sterling[8]

Death

She died in London on August 6, 1928.[2]

Works

References

  1. ^ a b Petteys, Chris, Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 1900, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985.
  2. ^ a b "Clara McChesney - Artist, Fine Art Prices, Auction Records for Clara McChesney". www.askart.com. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  3. ^ Opitz, Glenn B, editor, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986, p. 565
  4. ^ Hughes, Dean Milton (1986). Artists in California, 1786-1940 (1st ed.). Hughes Pub. Co. p. 302. ISBN 0961611200.
  5. ^ "San Francisco Call 23 December 1899 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  6. ^ Art in California: A survey of American art with special reference to californian painting, sculpture and architecture, past and present, particularly those as those arts were represented at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, essays by Bruce Porter, Mabel Urmy Seares, , Alma May Cook, A Sterling Calder, Louis Christian Mullgardt and others, originally published by R.L. Briener, Publishers, San Francisco, Reprinted Westphal Publishing, Irving, California, 1988, p. 171
  7. ^ Clara T. MacChesney (15 Aug 1915). "Carmel-By-The-Sea and its Pageant-Drama". New-York Tribune. New York, New York. p. 25. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  8. ^ George Sterling (1928-12-14). "Poems of Carmel". Carmel Pine Cone. Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-10-14.
  9. ^ "Clara Taggart MacChesney". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 7 August 2018.
  10. ^ Still Life with Plate and Kettle, from SIRIS.
  11. ^ Hay Barges, San Francisco, from SIRIS.
  12. ^ George C. Pardee, from SIRIS.