Eliot Clark
American (1883-1980)
Eliot Candee Clark, Impressionist painter of the American South and Southwest, was born in New York City in 1883. The son of Walter Clark, a landscape artist, he grew up “in the association of artists, of studio talk and that smell of paint and turpentine.” Clark exhibited at the National Academy and the New York Watercolor Club at age 13. From 1904 to 1906 he continued his studies in Paris and Giverny. Rather than enroll at one of the prestigious art academies in Europe, Clark preferred to travel, making pilgrimages to the stomping grounds of the Barbizon School, and to Holland, Italy, Spain and London to see exhibitions there. He opened a studio in Manhattan upon his return and quickly involved himself in the New York art scene. From 1912 to 1913, he won several national awards and painted in New Mexico, northern Arizona and Yosemite. He would return to these subjects throughout the 1920s and 30s. Clark was elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design in 1917. Over the course of his career, he held the offices of corresponding secretary, vice-president, and finally president of the organization from 1956–1959. He published a history of the Academy in 1954. He also served as president of the American Watercolor Society and Allied Artists of America. He was a member of the Society of Painters of New York; the Connecticut Association of Fine Art; the Salmagundi Club; the International Society of Arts and Letters; the New York Watercolor Club and others. Clark taught classes at the Art Students League, the University of Virginia and Savannah Art Club.
Clark’s works are represented in the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Parrish Art Museum and the Weisman Art Museum.
