Clementine Hunter (1886-1988)

PHOTOS: one of Hunter's well known scenes, "Wash Day," these two painted on linoleum tiles. The yellowed and faded tag reads "$3.50". I bought these in Houston from a collector friend in the 1990s who had found them in the attic of a elderly friend she was helping sell down her own collection of art and antiques. That friend had bought them from Hunter in the 1960s. The signature, a backward C and H, is consistent with the period of the '60s.

Born into a Louisiana Creole family in Natchitoches Parish, Clementine Hunter's grandparents had been slaves. Hunter started painting in her 50s, when she found leftover tubes of paint in the room an artist guest had been using at the plantation house where she worked as a maid. Her artwork depicted plantation life in the early 20th century, documenting a bygone era. She sold her first paintings for as little as 25 cents, but by the end of her life, Hunter's work was being exhibited in museums and individual pieces being sold by art dealers for as high as thousands of dollars. Clementine Hunter was granted an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree by Northwestern State University of Louisiana in 1986.

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