Louisiana Leaders: Notable Women in History

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" referring 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.

Born at Hidden Hill Plantation (now Little Eva Plantation) in Natchitoches Parish in 1885, she is reported to have begun her career in her 50s with discarded paints and brushes left by a visitor visiting Melrose Plantation, where she worked for almost 75 years. Melrose, outside of Natchitoches, was known in the early part of this century as a place of culture and art, and Miss Hunter worked there beginning in the cotton fields, and then progressing to the laundry and finally the kitchen.

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."