AFA Autumn 2018

Autumn 98 www.afamag.com |  www.incollect.com Kate Freeman Clark (1875–1957), White House, Long Island, ca. 1905. Oil on canvas, 34 x 31 inches. Mississippi-born Kate Freeman Clark seems to have painted mostly under the aegis of formal instruction. In 1895 she left her native Holly Springs, chaperoned by her mother, to enroll at the Art Students League. Over the next twenty years she studied with John H. Twachtman, Irving Wiles, and William Merritt Chase. She left the Art Students League for Chase’s new school in Manhattan and spent six summers with him at Shinnecock. When Clark began submitting her plein air landscapes to competitive exhibitions, she enjoyed significant success, showing at the National Academy of Design, the Carnegie Institute, and other major museums. Some scholars speculate that she exhibited under the name “Freeman Clark” in an attempt to avoid an anti-female bias. More likely, however, she concealed her identity because of pressure from her family, who discouraged her aspirations for a career as a professional artist. No sales of Clark’s work are known, despite the enthusiasm with which it was received by the art world. When Clark’s grandmother and mother died in 1919 and 1922, respectively, she returned to her ancestral home and never painted again. She bequeathed her work to the town of Holly Springs, along with funds to build an art gallery for the preservation of her legacy and the enrichment of the community.