Clark, Alson Skinner

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About Alson Skinner Clark  BORN: Chicago, 25 March 1876 DIED: Pasadena, California 23 March 1949  Most work by Alson Skinner Clark demonstrates not only his superior technique, but also an unusually clear understanding of the impressionist idiom. In discussing his painting, one observer correctly stated that Clark was not "an inventor nor precursor of movement or ideas" (DeLapp Gallery, 1960). But few American impressionists could claim such pure innovation. As one who quickly assimilated his French style, Clark succeeded quite well in adapting it to American *subject matter after his expatriate period in France. Therefore, although he was a member of the last generation to adhere to the style, he did so with much better facility than many of his associates. Clark was born in the spring of America's centennial year. He attended Chicago schools and, in typical child-prodigy fashion, took Saturday classes at the *Art Institute of Chicago at the age of fourteen. Drawing in charcoal from casts and learning the basics of perspective and composition, Alson was guided by *John H. Vanderpoel, director of the art school at the Art Institute. Clark visited the *World's Columbian Exposition, an event that dominated Chicago's activities, and which included a significant number of impressionist paintings in the so-called "Loan Collection." Perhaps he joined the host of visitors whose pleasure in the art stood as America's first real, public acceptance of impressionism. In any instance, Clark was bored by academic procedures and sought new inspiration, and for this he was encouraged to study at the *Art Students League in New York, which he entered in 1895. Clark took instruction at the recently constructed 215 West 57th Street building and had the opportunity to become acquainted with such stellar teachers as *John H. Twachtman, *Kenyon Cox, and *William Merritt Chase. At that time, the style of impressionism was far and away the most important influence at the League, notwithstanding opposition by certain teachers, such as Cox. His training at the League was valuable, but in 1896, when Chase founded the famous Chase School (later the *New York School of Art), young Clark became a charter student. The influence Clark absorbed at this school was long lasting and of paramount importance to his subsequent style. Enthusiastic, he imbibed the excitement of the New York art community, watching such events as the first exhibition of *the Ten. But after five years, even New York became routine, so, in the last year of the century, Alson Clark crossed the Atlantic for Europe. Clark was peripatetic at the turn of the century, but by March of 1900 he had settled in Paris and set up his easel in a studio in the Cour du Dragon, where he shared space with *Eugene Paul Ullman, a fellow American art student who had also studied with Chase in New York. Ullman was primarily interested in subjects revolving around la femme, topics that occasionally suited the more versatile talents of Clark. Nonetheless, it was landscapes that most frequently appeared on Clark's canvases. In spite of their diverse tastes, the two young artists profited from their mutual interest in contemporary French art. After his brief introduction to the Parisian art community, Clark took a sketching trip to Le Pouldu in *Brittany, a favorite spot of French and American painters (see Sellin, 1982). There, he came into contact with artists who executed their work in the impressionist manner. Upon his return to Paris, Clark immediately ended his period of independent study. He undertook a rigorous routine of instruction under numerous painters in several schools; the artist is listed as a student at the *Julian and Delécluze academies, and he may also have worked under Lucien J. Simon at *La Grande Chaumière. Another instructor was Charles Cottet, a talented painter whose work was highly praised that year and awarded a gold medal at the *Paris Universal Exposition. In addition, he sought criticism from Luc-Olivier Merson, an arch conservative and former professor at the *Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Merson had just been awarded the coveted Grand Prix at the Exposition Universelle when Clark came to study with him. Apparently, his last instructor was Alphonse Mucha, who was then associated with the *Colarossi Academy and who assisted Clark with his work in figurative painting. According to one source (DeLapp Gallery, 1960), all of Clark's French training took place within a span of less than one year. If so, his brief but varied, if unfocused, encounter with modern art (in all of the major academies) in Paris provided an extremely diverse nucleus of art ideas and techniques. Later in 1900, his training culminated with his study under American *James McNeill Whistler in his Académie Carmen. At this period in his career, Whistler was the unquestioned master of modern painting and well-known for his biting analytical criticism. He taught as he painted, in an opinionated, albeit positive, manner that was eventually perplexing to Clark. Consequently, the student painter stopped working under Whistler after a few months to pursue his style once again through a course of independent study, drawing upon his previous months of experience with others. Hoping to gather certain credentials, Clark submitted a somewhat conservative work to the spring Salon, titled The Violinist. His acceptance for the May exhibition was a distinctive award, and it served as a kind of souvenir piece for his return to America in the following year. His paintings were accepted again for the next two salons. Clark was in New York before the unexpected death of Twachtman in 1902 and, subsequently, he settled in Watertown, New York. Shortly after his arrival, he married Medora McMullin, then he attempted a one-man show of his recent works in Watertown, which was, unfortunately, a discouraging failure. On the contrary, his career in America was officially inaugurated in April 1902 with a successful one-man exhibition of his European works at the Anderson Gallery in Chicago. In two weeks, most of his paintings were sold, and Alson Clark had proven his ability as a painter. The proceeds provided funds for Clark and his wife to return to Paris in the fall of 1902. While there, he executed works known as the Luxembourg Garden series. In the spring of the following year, Clark traveled in Brittany and took up residence at Rochefort-en-Terre. Brittany had become a popular area for painters since the eighties, and a kind of successor to Barbizon. It was *picturesque and inspiring and promoted the tradition of *plein-air painting. Long before Clark's visit, Brittany had hosted offshoots of the impressionist style, and the milieu there continued to exert an influence, albeit one of a latter-day impressionist tradition. Accordingly, that summer Clark attached himself to the environment and selected bits and pieces of it for his imagery. After returning to Paris, he completed enough works by the end of 1903 for a one-man show at the Art Institute of Chicago. The exhibit resulted in critical and monetary success. In 1904, Clark and his wife traveled to Italy to gather a wider variety of subjects for his canvases. In Naples and other spots, he executed numerous works demonstrating his concern with light and atmosphere in a characteristically impressionist manner. He specialized in landscapes, but he did not hesitate to select picturesque views of Naples, a few of which reveal his compositional ability. After a few months, the Clarks returned to Paris, where Alson continued to paint throughout the fall and winter. Exemplary scenes of Paris emanate from those months and serve to demonstrate his talent as a painter of winter, precedents for which were provided by *Monet, *Sisley, and *Pissarro. The cold, moody quality of light in these works contrasts interestingly with the sunny warmth of Clark's Italian scenes executed only a few months earlier. Clark's work was accepted by the *Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts for the well-known Champs de Mars Salon. At the same time, he sent two works, titled A Heavy Snow Storm and Snowy Hillside, to the 1904 *St. Louis Universal Exposition and received a bronze medal for his efforts. And a certain H. K. Webster saw to it that no fewer than fourteen Italian works by Clark were shown in the Seventeenth Annual Exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago. Perhaps it was his recent successes that prompted Clark to take up his career in the Midwest fifteen years after his first attempts there as a student. Continuing as a painter, he experimented with various media and took active part in Chicago's art community. In 1906, he took a sketching trip to Quebec and received the Martin B. Cahn Prize from the Art Institute for his Coffee House, a work subsequently purchased for the museum's permanent collection. It has been rightly compared to works by Robert Henri (Stern, in Trenton and Gerdts, 1990, p. 118). He was extremely active at this time and, in 1907, took a summer trip to France, where he executed his Châteaux Country series. After his return to the United States in the fall of that year, the results of this short but productive period were prepared for a traveling exhibit. It began at Chicago's Moulton & Ricketts Galleries in February 1908 and continued to museums in Worcester, Cincinnati, Detroit, and St. Louis by the spring of 1909. Sojourning to various countries, Clark stopped to paint in Normandy and Spain while maintaining a studio-residence in Paris. He spent most of 1910 in Normandy, including *Giverny where he saw *Guy Rose, *Lawton Parker, and *Frederick Frieseke. At this time, his conception and technique were purely impressionistic, as he demonstrated a characteristic system of *broken color and *high-key palette. On the Beach, Urville, Normandie from 1910 (Private collection) demonstrates the lingering influence of Chase. His compositions frequently reminiscent of those of Sisley, Clark would apply his pigment in small, mosaic-like squares quite similar to the manner of *Signac. Clark spent part of 1911 in New Orleans. Like *William Chadwick, who frequently visited the Dalmatian coast, Clark found that area suitable to record on canvas. He was also impressed by Prague, where he spent a considerable portion of 1912. After several productive months in Dalmatia, Clark returned to America, arriving in New York in the winter of 1912. Maintaining his quarters at the Tree Studio Building in Chicago, he resumed an active schedule. In January 1913, the O'Brien Art Galleries on Michigan Avenue mounted a two-week exhibition of his paintings of Dalmatia. He was apparently unaffected by the revolutionary art forms that he saw in the famous *Armory Show exhibition when it was presented at the Art Institute in March and April. Indeed, most of the year was spent in Panama and various Caribbean spots, where he executed some exemplary paintings using his typical impressionist technique. Again in 1914, Clark visited France, where he traveled throughout the countryside, producing colorful examples of plein-air style. Working in a well-handled *neo-impressionistic technique, in which he employed a systematic juxtaposition of small color blocks, Clark succeeded in producing a codified pictorial formula, which compares favorably with most contemporaneous French works. However, he was not able to continue his work in France, owing to increased war activities; Clark returned to the United States at the official outbreak of World War I in 1914. In the following year, his superior talent was confirmed when he received a bronze medal at the *Panama-Pacific International Exposition. Neuhaus (1915-B), on the other hand, thought his "shallow Panama scenes [were] devoid of any quality. In January of 1917, the Henry Reinhardt & Sons Gallery in Chicago presented an exhibition of his work titled "Recent American and French Landscapes." During the war, Clark's activity as a painter was curtailed as a result of his service as a Navy aerial photographer. Having suffered a hearing impairment in 1919, he moved temporarily to California, where he underwent a series of treatments that proved to be successful. He began taking short sketching trips to the desert and, after a brief period of initiation to his new subject matter, was able to produce excellent impressionistic works. Indeed, these must stand as the culmination of his impressionistic style. The brilliant desert light resulted in an even higher-keyed palette than before and a delicate atmospheric quality unlike previous works. On the other hand, Clark's style seems contingent upon his subject matter in certain cases, and it seems obvious that he vacillated in his conception and technique. Also, during this time he experimented with subjects loosely allied to those of the American *Giverny group, several of whom, including *Karl Anderson and Lawton Parker, were from Chicago. By 1921, Clark had begun teaching at the Stickney Memorial Art School in Pasadena, California, to replace Guy Rose (another Giverny impressionist whom he had met), who was too ill to teach. Clark interrupted these duties the following year to paint in La Jolla, California, and in Mexico. One work from hat year is his striking Fruit Pickers (Private collection). Upon his return in the fall, Clark's work was presented in a one-man show at Stendahl Galleries in Los Angeles (Moure, 1975, pp. 45-46). In the fall of 1923, the works he brought back from a summer painting trip to Mexico were shown at the San Diego Museum. Clark still maintained his studio in Chicago and one in Watertown, New York, but by 1924 he considered himself a citizen of Pasadena. In that year, he received the well-known Huntington Prize from the Los Angeles County Museum. About this time, however, he began painting fewer easel pictures, replacing this practice with mural decoration. One of these projects was the decoration of the Pasadena Playhouse in 1925, while others were commissioned murals for the First Trust and Savings Bank there. Additional sketching trips to Mexico in the late twenties resulted in work somewhat changed in character, showing bolder color and design. Death Valley, ca. 1929-30, in a private collection, is composed of a very restricted palette and shows a wide, expansive panorama. Always demonstrating an extreme seriousness about his work, Clark directed some of his attention to lithography and other work in black and white. His work was awarded a second prize at the Pasadena Art Institute in 1931 and a first prize in 1933. During this period, he served as director of the Stickney School of Art. He continued to exhibit in the early thirties, but, for the most part, his activity as a nationally recognized painter of American impressionism was over by the end of the Depression. In 1936, Clark sailed across the Atlantic to visit Europe but returned after a few months. Some degree of his reputation was revived in 1940 when his work was mounted in a one-man show at the Los Angeles County Museum. Nonetheless, Alson Skinner Clark's type of art was out of favor by that time, and nine years later, at the age of seventy-two, he died, virtually forgotten by the American art community. Recent art gallery exhibitions of his work in New York and California have been instrumental in the revival of his reputation.   REF. "The Châteaux Country: Paintings by Alson Skinner Clark," 1909; Neuhaus, 1915-B, p. 83; "A Unique Monument to Old California," 1927; DeLapp, 1960; Sparks, 1971, vol. 2, p. 332; American Painters of the Impressionist Period Rediscovered, 1975, p. 33; Barter and Springer, 1977, pp. 126-127; Oakland Museum, 1981; Stern, 1983; D'Andrea, 1990; Gerdts, 1990, vol. 2, p. 307, vol. 3, pp. 317-319; O California!, 1990, pp. 137, 186, 237, 251; Oakland Museum, 1990, pp. 44-45, 68-69; Jean Stern, "Alson Clark: An American at Home and Abroad," in Trenton and Gerdts, 1990, pp. 113-136; Gerdts, 1992-B, cat. no. 22; Delehanty, 1996, cat. no. 136; Gerdts and South, 1998, pp. 178-185; Becker, 2000, p. 129.

Paintings by Alson Skinner Clark Chicago in Winter oil on canvas: 25 x 30 inches signed: lower left Click Picture to Enlarge