Posted by Larry
Alson Skinner Clark was born March 25, 1876 in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Art Students' League of New York and the Chase School under William Merritt Chase. Encourgaed by Chase to continue his studies in Paris, Clark studied under Cottet, Merson, Mucha and the great American painter Whistler.
At various times in his career he maintained studios in Watertown, New York, Chicago, Paris, Pasadena and Palm Springs, California. Clark had memberships in the American Art Asn., Chicago Society of Artists and the Salmagundi Club. He won awards at the St. Louis Exposition, 1904, Chicago Art Institute, 1906, Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, 1915 and the Grand Prize at the Southwest Museum, 1923. His paintings can be found in the Art Institute of Chicago, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Art, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Alson Clark traveled and painted in France, Quebec, Spain, Prague, Dalmatia and Panama. His paintings have shown "an intimate and masterful sense of composition, brushwork and color". He painted the coast, mountains and deserts of California, urban scenes of Chicago and peasant market streets and dwellings of Brittany and brilliant snow scenes of Paris and Quebec. He died in Pasadena, California on March 23, 1949.
The author of this biography is a collector and active buyer of paintings by Alson Skinner Clark and other early California artists, he can be reached through email at, Brentemail@aol.com (Larry)