Clementine Hunter (pronounced Clementeen; late December 1886 or early January 1887 – January 1, 1988) was a self-taught Black folk artist from the Cane River region of Louisiana, who lived and worked on Melrose Plantation.
Hunter was born into a Louisiana Creole family at Hidden Hill Plantation near Cloutierville, in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. She started working as a farm laborer when she was young and never learned to read or write. In her fifties, she began to sell her paintings, which soon gained local and national attention for their complexity in depicting Black Southern life in the early 20th century.
Initially she sold her first paintings for as little as 25 cents, but by the end of her life, her work was being exhibited in museums and sold by dealers for thousands of dollars. She produced an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 paintings in her lifetime. Hunter was granted an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Northwestern State University of Louisiana in 1986, and she was the first African-American artist to have a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art. In 2013, director Robert Wilson presented a new opera about her, entitled Zinnias: The Life of Clementine Hunter, at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
Clementine Hunter's exact birth date is unknown; she was born in late December 1886 or early January 1887 at Hidden Hill Plantation, near Cloutierville in Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. She was the first of seven children born to Janvier "John" Reuben and Mary Antoinette Adams. Hunter's siblings were named Maria, Ida, Rosa, Edward, Simon, and John. Hunter's maternal grandmother Idole, an enslaved Black and Native American woman, was born in Virginia and brought to Louisiana. Her maternal grandfather was called Billy Zack Adams. Hunter's paternal grandfather, who was of mixed African, French, and Irish descent, traded horses during the Civil War; he died before she was born. Hunter knew her paternal grandmother well, a Black and Native American woman who she called MéMé (pronounced May-May). Her parents were married on October 15, 1890, in Cloutierville at the town's Catholic church, St. John the Baptist.
Hunter was baptized a Catholic on March 19, 1887, in Cloutierville, at about three months old. She was baptized Clementiam, went by the name Clémence for the first part of her life, and changed her name to Clementine after moving to Melrose Plantation. Her family called her by the nickname Tébé, the French for "little baby," a nickname she carried into adulthood.
Hunter moved to Cloutierville when she was around five years old and was sent to St. John the Baptist Catholic Church School. The school was segregated and enforced harsh rules, which Hunter cited as the reason she left school at a young age. She attended school for less than a year and never learned to read or write. Hunter began working in the fields at eight years old, picking cotton alongside her father. Throughout her early life her family moved around in the Cane River Valley while her father looked for work. At certain points they lived in Robeline, Cypress, and Alexandria.
In 1902, when Hunter was around the age of fifteen, her family moved to Melrose Plantation, where her father had been hired as a wage laborer by John H. Henry, the plantation owner. She worked there as an agricultural laborer as well, toiling six days a week for most of the year. She would pick 150 to 200 pounds of cotton a day for 75 cents in wages. In the fall, she would harvest pecans. While in her teens, Hunter took informal classes at night with other workers at Melrose Plantation. Her mother died in 1905 at Melrose.
When Hunter was about twenty in 1907, she gave birth to her first child, Joseph Dupree, called "Frenchie". Hunter's first partner was Charles Dupree, a Creole man about fifteen years her senior. Known for highly skilled labor, Charles was said to have built a steam engine with only a picture for reference. Their second child, Cora, was born a few years later. Charles Dupree and Clementine Reuben never married, and Dupree died in 1914.
In 1924, Clementine married Emmanuel Hunter, a Creole employed as a woodchopper at Melrose, who was six years her senior. Until her marriage she spoke only Creole French, and she credited Emmanuel with teaching her American English. The two lived together in a workers' cabin at Melrose Plantation and had five children, two of whom were stillborn. Hunter's children were named Agnes, King, and Mary. On the morning before giving birth to one of her children, she harvested 78 pounds of cotton before going home and calling for the midwife. She was back working a few days later.
In the late 1920s, Hunter began working as cook and housekeeper for Cammie Henry, the wife of John H. Henry. Hunter was known for her talents at adapting traditional Creole recipes, sewing intricate clothes and dolls, and tending to the house's vegetable garden. During this period, Melrose evolved into a salon for artists and writers, hosted by Cammie Henry. Using discarded tubes from the visiting artists, Clementine Hunter began to paint in the late 1930s.
In the early 1940s, Hunter's husband Emmanuel became terminally ill and bedridden. She became the sole financial provider for the family, working full time while caring for Emmanuel and painting late at night. Emmanuel died in 1944, leaving Hunter to work and care for her children alone.
During this period in the early 1940s, Hunter adopted Mary Francis LaCour, an eleven-year-old girl whose parents could no longer care for her. Hunter taught the girl how to paint and displayed her creations outside of Hunter's home. In her teens, Mary Francis moved to California to live with her father. In 1951, Mary Francis died at less than twenty years old.
Hunter has become one of the most well-known self-taught artists. Hunter is described as a memory painter because she documented Black Southern life in the Cane River Valley in the early 20th century. She was entirely self-taught and received almost no formal education, art or otherwise. Although she was first recognized for her painting skills in 1939, Hunter related that she had been painting long before then. Her most famous work features brightly colored depictions of important events like funerals, baptisms, and weddings, as well as scenes of plantation labor and domestic chores. However, Hunter's paintings vary in subject and style, including abstracts and still lifes.
Hunter painted from memory, stating: "I just get it in my mind and I just go ahead and paint but I can't look at nothing and paint. No trees, no nothing. I just make my own tree in my mind, that's the way I paint."
Cammie Henry created an artists' colony at Melrose Plantation after the death of her husband. Numerous artists and writers visited, including Lyle Saxon, Roark Bradford, Alexander Woollcott, Rose Franken, Gwen Bristow, and Richard Avedon. The paint and brushes left behind by New Orleans artist Alberta Kinsey are frequently cited as the first materials Hunter used to paint with (on a window shade). However, Hunter was already producing narrative and expressionist work in textiles, including intricately detailed quilts. Additionally, Hunter's own accounts of her early career contradict the story of Kinsey's influence, with references to paintings she made earlier than 1939.
Hunter began selling paintings after the death of her husband, Emmanuel Hunter. On the outside of the cabin where she lived was a sign that read: "Clementine Hunter, Artist. 25 cents to Look." Her paintings were displayed in the local drugstore, where they were sold for one dollar.
Hunter's first shows were in 1945 in Rosenwald Grant, Brownwood, and Waco, Texas. In 1949, an exhibit of her paintings at the New Orleans Arts and Crafts Show garnered attention outside of the Cane River Valley. An article was published about Hunter in Look magazine in June 1953, giving her national exposure.
Hunter gained support from numerous individuals associated with Melrose Plantation, including François Mignon, who supplied her with paint and materials and promoted her artwork widely. In 1956, Hunter and Mignon coauthored Melrose Plantation Cookbook, featuring photographs of Melrose Plantation, illustrations drawn by Hunter, and recipes. Hunter was skilled at reinterpreting traditional dishes which had been orally passed down in her family.