Clara Taggart MacChesney explained

Clara Taggart MacChesney
Birth Place:	Brownsville, California
Death Place:	London, England
Nationality:	American
Education:	California School of Design, Académie Colarossi
Field:	Painting

Clara Taggart MacChesney (sometimes McChesney) (1860/61-1928) was an American painter and writer known for her figurative painting, landscapes and “scenes and people of Holland.”^[1]

Early years

Born in Brownsville, California, her family moved to Oakland when she was young where her father, Joseph B. McChesney, was principal of Oakland High School.^[2]

MacChesney began her art studies in San Francisco with Virgil Williams at the California School of Design, before moving to New York City to continue her studies with H. S. Mowbray and J. C. Beckwith.^[3] This was followed by a move to Paris, where she enrolled in the Académie Colarossi and studied with Courtois.^[4]

MacChesney exhibited watercolors at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and was awarded a medal for her work. An article in The San Francisco Call announced that she had placed two paintings in the 1900 World's Exposition in Paris, and remarked that: "Both American and foreign artists have referred to Miss McChesney as 'America's foremost woman painter.' "^[5] She would later exhibit at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, winning a bronze medal.^[6]

She also wrote and published pieces for New York art publications, “frequently on her lifelong friend Elizabeth Nourse.”^[1]

MacChesney lived in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in the 1920s. She wrote about Carmel-by-the-Sea and its pageant and drama in the New-York Tribune.^[7]

Death

She died in London on August 6, 1928.^[2]

Works

• A Good Story (Portrait of Robert Loftin Newman), (1900) Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.^[8]
• Still Life with Plate and Kettle, National Arts Club, Manhattan, New York City^[9]
• Hay Barges, San Francisco, Oakland Museum, Oakland, California^[10]
• Portrait of Governor George C. Pardee (1911), California State Capitol, Sacramento^[11]

Notes and References

1. Petteys, Chris, Dictionary of Women Artists: An international dictionary of women artists born before 1900, G.K. Hall & Co., Boston, 1985.
2. Web site: Clara McChesney - Artist, Fine Art Prices, Auction Records for Clara McChesney. www.askart.com. 7 August 2018.
3. Opitz, Glenn B, editor, Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers, Apollo Book, Poughkeepsie NY, 1986, p. 565
4. Book: Hughes . Dean Milton . Artists in California, 1786-1940 . 1986 . registration . Hughes Pub. Co . 0961611200 . 302 . 1st.
5. Web site: San Francisco Call 23 December 1899 — California Digital Newspaper Collection. cdnc.ucr.edu. 7 August 2018.
6. Art in California: A survey of American art with special reference to californian painting, sculpture and architecture, past and present, particularly those as those arts were represented at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, essays by Bruce Porter, Mabel Urmy Seares,, Alma May Cook, A Sterling Calder, Louis Christian Mullgardt and others, originally published by R.L. Briener, Publishers, San Francisco, Reprinted Westphal Publishing, Irving, California, 1988, p. 171
7. Web site: Carmel-By-The-Sea and its Pageant-Drama. Clara T. MacChesney. New-York Tribune. New York, New York. 15 Aug 1915. 25. 2022-10-16.
8. Web site: Clara Taggart MacChesney. Smithsonian American Art Museum. 7 August 2018.
9. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1533F39571G6G.96&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!350154~!1&ri=5&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Clara+Taggart&index=.AW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=5 Still Life with Plate and Kettle
10. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1533F39571G6G.96&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!144666~!9&ri=8&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Clara+Taggart&index=.AW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=8 Hay Barges, San Francisco
11. https://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1533F39571G6G.96&profile=ariall&source=~!siartinventories&view=subscriptionsummary&uri=full=3100001~!138401~!5&ri=1&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ipp=20&spp=20&staffonly=&term=Clara+Taggart&index=.AW&uindex=&aspect=Keyword&menu=search&ri=1 George C. Pardee