Ralph Elmer Clarkson
Ralph Elmer Clarkson (3 August 1861, Amesbury, Massachusetts - 5 April 1942, Orlando, Florida) was an American painter, known primarily for his portraits of public figures in and around Chicago.
Biography
His father was a carriage manufacturer of Scottish ancestry. He began his artistic training in 1881 at the new School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with Frederic Crowninshield. This was followed by lessons at the Académie Julian in Paris, under the direction of Jules Lefebvre and Gustave Boulanger. His first exhibit at the Salon came in 1887.[1]
After returning to the United States, he lived in
Three years later, he became one of the first occupants of the newly refurbished Fine Arts Building on Michigan Avenue (formerly the Studebaker Carriage Shop).[1] Soon, he was at the center of an artistic group that included Charles Francis Browne (1859-1920), Oliver Dennett Grover and Lorado Taft, who he assisted in creating the Eagle's Nest Art Colony on property provided by the Chicago attorney, Wallace Heckman (1851-1927).
He became one of the first members of the
Among his portraits are those of the physicist,
According to a legal agreement, the lease for the Eagle's Nest would expire when the last member died, and Clarkson was that member. He died while vacationing in Florida.[2]
References
Further reading
- Detailed biography @ the Illinois Historical Art Project
External links
- Restoring John Peter Altegeld's Portrait @ Illinois Periodicals online
- Ralph Clarkson's papers @ the Art Institute of Chicago
- Detailed biography @ the Illinois Historical Art Project
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