Garden Cinderella Goes to the Smithsonian
Updated April 8, 2025
Editor’s note:
Despite completing an extensive college-level course, Women in Art from the Middle Ages to the 21st century, this artist was not included.
I first learned about Clementine Hunter while watching an episode of Antiques Roadshow on PBS. So, I called and spoke to a professor who knew her personally.
Celebrated southern folk artist (Clemen-teen) Hunter
loved Zinnias, so maybe it is fitting that she also be known as the name of her favorite flower…Garden Cinderella.
A fitting name perhaps as the details of her life unfold…
Born sometime in the late 1880s, the self-taught painter worked as a servant on a plantation where she also lived.
Hunter had little formal schooling and could not read or write. But Hunter later began charging visitors pennies to visit her dwelling and view her exhibits, and gradually became known to the public. Hunter lived to be over 100 years of age (1988).
A biography co-authored by Professor Tom Whitehead, who knew her personally, documents her remarkable life and achievements, and the impact her paintings had in the art world. Hunter’s art was so popular, it triggered a crime ring and federal indictments.
And although Hunter once turned down then-President Jimmy Carter’s invitation to travel to the White House, her art will now make the journey to a permanent home in Washington, DC.
According to Professor Whitehead, a collection of six of her paintings has now been donated to the Smithsonian.
Cheers!
References
Phone conversation with Professor Whitehead, November 2014.
American art Smithsonian.edu
https://americanart.si.edu/artist/clementine-hunter-30514
Smithsonian magazine.com
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/self-taught-artist-clementine-hunter-painted-bold-hues-southern-life-180970572/
Fakes, Finds, and the Story of Clementine Hunter
Antiques Roadshow | PBS
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