Untitled

Close up of Untitled

Rendered in a childlike style, the painting depicts a dark-skinned woman in a blue dress offering a bouquet of red flowers to a photograph of the artist affixed to canvas. The woman stands next to a tree surrounded by red flowers with blue sky and gray clouds above her.
Rendered in a childlike style, the painting depicts a dark-skinned woman in a blue dress offering a bouquet of red flowers to a photograph of the artist affixed to canvas. The woman stands next to a tree surrounded by red flowers with blue sky and gray clouds above her.
Clementine Hunter, Untitled, 1981; Oil and collage on canvasboard, 14 x 18 in.; National Museum of Women in the Arts, Gift of Evelyn M. Shambaugh; © Clementine Hunter

Entirely self-taught and immensely prolific, Clementine Hunter earned critical acclaim for thousands of vibrant paintings.

Hunter, who labored her entire life on plantations in central Louisiana, began painting only in her late 50s. Most of her paintings chronicle her memories and experience of plantation life: harvests, baptisms, funerals, and the like.

This untitled painting, however, functions as a self-portrait. Incorporating the front panel of a 1974 exhibition brochure in the composition, Hunter simultaneously documented her photographic likeness and her public success as an artist. Even the painted figure to the left, which bears flowers, seems to allude to the respect Hunter had earned as a result of her talent.

Artwork Details

  • Artist

    Clementine Hunter

  • Title

    Untitled

  • Date

    1981

  • Medium

    Oil and collage on canvas board

  • Dimensions

    14 x 18 in.

  • Donor Credit

    Gift of Evelyn M. Shambaugh

  • Photo Credit

    © Clementine Hunter

  • On Display

    No

The Artist, Clementine Hunter

A self-taught artist, Clementine Hunter created bright, whimsical folk paintings depicting life in the Cane River region of central Louisiana.
A black-and-white photograph of a dark-skinned older woman, shown from the neck up. She has short, dark hair, held away from her face by a white head wrap. She has a stoic expression, and is looking away from the camera against a light background.