Clara Weaver Parrish

Clara Weaver Parrish (born March 16, 1861 as Clara Minter Weaver in Selma (Alabama) , † March 11, 1925 in New York City ) was an American painter , designer , glass painter , muralist and printmaker, who mainly through her painting and Glass art gained fame.

childhood

Clara Weaver's childhood home in Selma

Clara Minter Weaver was born on her parents' plantation Emerald Place in Dallas County, southeast of Selma, as one of six siblings. Her parents William Minter Weaver and Lucia Frances Minter both came from long-established, well-off families. Her paternal grandparents were Philip J. Weaver, a founding member of Selma, and Ann P. Gardner, on the maternal side William T. Minter and Susan A. Bell. After the Civil War , the family moved to a large house in downtown Selma that was built by Philip Weaver. The children were taught in a small school house behind the main building. The girls received their education at the Dallas Female Academy, a private school for daughters of rich and established families, founded by a group of women from powerful Selma families. William and Lucia Weaver nurtured their children's artistic interests and talents.

Career and artistic activity

The Red Lily , oil on canvas, ca.1914.

In the mid-1880s, Clara moved to New York to study painting at the Art Students League of New York . She was tutored by William Merritt Chase , Kenyon Cox , Henry Siddons Mowbray and Julian Alden Weir , among others . During this time she also made the first of many trips to Europe, like many wealthy young women of her time. She spent several months in France studying painting with Raffaelle Collins, a student of the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes . Under his direction, she developed her own Art Nouveau style. Her visits to Gothic cathedrals first aroused her interest in the art of stained glass processing. She often returned to her hometown for family visits and met her future husband, William Peck Parrish, who was from nearby Greensboro and worked for the City National Bank in Selma. They married in Selma in October 1889. In 1890 the couple settled in New York, where Clara continued her artistic activities and William worked as a broker on the New York Stock Exchange . They had one daughter who died at the age of 16 months.

During the 1890s, she began promoting and supporting women artists as part of her work for the Woman's Art Club of New York and was represented with her own works at the exhibitions of the Woman's Art Club. Within a short time, her work gained wide recognition and recognition and was shown at well-known exhibitions in the following years. Her paintings and drawings were exhibited at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and the World Exposition in Paris in 1900 . She also illustrated two books: The Fir Tree in 1891 by Barbara Waite and Mammy's Reminiscences and Other Sketches in 1898 by Martha Sawyer Gielow.

Parrish designed windows in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma, Alabama

She began working as a designer for the Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company (later renamed Tiffany Studios ) from Louis Comfort Tiffany . She worked on many of his commissions, including windows for New York's St. Michael's Episcopal Church in Manhattan in 1895. Her paintings and drawings are inspired by Art Nouveau . In their clear and symbolic structure, they reveal Parrish's experience with glass painting. As a subject, she often chose women who had experienced personal tragedy. Parrish's husband, William Peck Parrish, died of a heart attack on April 29, 1901 while he was on his way home from Washington DC to New York.

As a result, Parrish often commuted between New York and France. She traveled extensively through France and Italy and visited the country's great cathedrals to study medieval stained glass, stained glass mosaics and wall paintings. Her works have been shown at exhibitions in Europe, such as the Salon de Paris in 1910 and the Royal Academy of Arts in London in 1910. Parrish lived in Paris from 1910 to 1914, dividing her time between traveling and working in her studios in New York and Paris at 83 Boulevard du Montparnasse . She took private lessons and studied at the Académie Colarossi . She wrote, painted, designed furniture and drawings for glass windows. Over time, she also created windows in her native Alabama, such as for the Holy Cross Episcopal Church in Uniontown , Christ Episcopal Church in Tuscaloosa , First Baptist Church in Selma and St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Selma. She returned to New York in 1914.

estate

After her death in New York in 1925, she was buried next to her husband and daughter in the Weavers' family vault at Old Live Oak Cemetery in Selma. In her will, she established the Weaver-Parrish Memorial Trust , which continues to help the needy in Selma and Dallas Counties to this day. A college scholarship is awarded every two years to attend Selma High School. Paintings and furniture designed by Parrish can be seen in Selma, and several of her paintings hang in St. Paul's Episcopal Church. Some of her paintings, letters, and notebooks are archived in the Alabama Department of Archives and History in Montgomery. Her paintings are owned by the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts , the Greenville County Museum of Art in South Carolina, the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, Georgia, the Sturdivant Hall in Selma, the Johnson Collection in Spartanburg, South Carolina and in Privately owned. In 1983 she was inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame.

Web links

Commons : Clara Weaver Parrish - collection of images, videos and audio files

Clara Weaver Parrish in the database of Find a Grave (English)

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Encyclopedia of Alabama: Clara Weaver Parrish, August 1, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The Johnson Collection: Parrish, Clara Weaver (1861-1925) . Retrieved May 28, 2017.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Birmingham Museum of Art: The Weavers of Selma . Retrieved May 28, 2017.
^ ^A ^b ^c ^d ^e C. Reynolds Brown: Clara Weaver Parrish . Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery 1980, ISBN 978-0-89280-016-2 , pp. 1-32.
↑ Sharon J. Jackson: Selma - Images of America . Arcadia Publishing, 2014, ISBN 9781467112918 , pp. 21-22
^ ^A ^b The New York Times: William Peck Parrish Dead, May 1, 1901. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
^ The New York Times: The Woman's Art Club, February 26, 1892. Retrieved May 28, 2017.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Alabama Women's Hall of Fame: Clara Weaver Parrish (1861-1925) . Retrieved May 28, 2017.
^ Smithsonian American Art Museum: Art Inventories Catalog - Parrish, Clara Weaver . Retrieved May 28, 2017.

personal data
SURNAME	Weaver Parrish, Clara
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American painter and glass artist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 16, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH	Selma, Alabama
DATE OF DEATH	March 11, 1925
Place of death	New York City

[Encyclopedia-1] Encyclopedia of Alabama: Clara Weaver Parrish, August 1, 2016. Retrieved May 28, 2017.

[johnson-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The Johnson Collection: Parrish, Clara Weaver (1861-1925) . Retrieved May 28, 2017.

[bhamart-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Birmingham Museum of Art: The Weavers of Selma . Retrieved May 28, 2017.

[clara-4] A ^b ^c ^d ^e C. Reynolds Brown: Clara Weaver Parrish . Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Montgomery 1980, ISBN 978-0-89280-016-2 , pp. 1-32.

[Jackson-5] Sharon J. Jackson: Selma - Images of America . Arcadia Publishing, 2014, ISBN 9781467112918 , pp. 21-22

[nyt2-6] A ^b The New York Times: William Peck Parrish Dead, May 1, 1901. Retrieved May 28, 2017.

[nyt1-7] The New York Times: The Woman's Art Club, February 26, 1892. Retrieved May 28, 2017.

[alhall-8] Alabama Women's Hall of Fame: Clara Weaver Parrish (1861-1925) . Retrieved May 28, 2017.

[Smithsonian-9] Smithsonian American Art Museum: Art Inventories Catalog - Parrish, Clara Weaver . Retrieved May 28, 2017.