Clara Stroud (American/Louisiana, 1890-1984) , "Old Goose Creek Church, Summerville, SC", 1956

Clara Stroud (American/Louisiana, 1890-1984) , "Old Goose Creek Church, Summerville, SC", 1956, watercolor on paper, signed lower right, illegibly inscribed lower left, 30 in. x 22 1/2 in., unframed; with printed and handwritten information about the church. (2 pcs.) Note: Clara Stroud was born in New Orleans in 1890 to watercolor artist, Ida Wells Stroud and her husband, George Stroud. When George Stroud died only four years after his daughter’s birth, Ida moved the family to Brooklyn, New York to pursue a career in fine art. With her mother as a caretaker for her two children, Ida was able to attend Pratt Institute. In 1905, Ida moved her family once again to East Orange, New Jersey where Clara attended high school then followed in her mother’s footsteps and continued her art education at Pratt Institute. At the turn of the century, Ida and Clara were heavily involved with the Arts and Crafts Movement, both experimenting with different forms and media to create finely crafted decorative objects. However, watercolor was the medium for which they became best known. Peter Hastings Falk wrote: “Mother and daughter, Ida and Clara Stroud were at the forefront of a nationwide movement that established watercolor as a medium uniquely suited to the spirit of American artists.” In 1922, Clara and her husband, Charles Colvin, purchased a sixty-acre farm in Herbertsville, New Jersey. A few years later, Stroud and Colvin would divorce, and Clara would invite her mother to move into her home. Clara was an avid gardener, and the numerous gardens on the farm were important inspiration for the artists. They became active teaching painting classes, and Clara traveled in the summers to take classes herself at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida and visit William Spratling in Taxco, Mexico. After Ida’s death in 1944, Clara established an annual prize through the American Watercolor Society for the best woman watercolorist. Shortly after her own death in 1984, Clara was honored as a life member of the American Watercolor Society. The Strouds’ brilliance in watercolor, along with their commitment to art education in New Jersey, are a fitting legacy for these talented women.In the work offered here, Stroud painted the Old Goose Creek Church in Summerville, South Carolina, built in 1719 by early English planters from Barbados. Stroud painted the church in 1956 shortly before it underwent an approximately twenty-year period of neglect. In the 1990s, the community was able to restore the church and maintain the building, though owing to its rural location it is infrequently used for church services. Stroud likely painted the church and wrote the attached notes about its history on one of her summer travels to a warmer locale. Ref.: Falk, Peter Hastings. “Clara & Ida Stroud: Pioneering Women in American Art.” askART. www.askart.com. Accessed Mar. 3, 2023.
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