Clementine Hunter O/B, The Cotton Gin

Early Clementine Reuben Hunter (Louisiana, 1886-1988) oil on canvas board folk art painting, Cotton Gin scene depicting the delivery and making of cotton with a man driving a horse-drawn cotton wagon towards a red building, one man processing cotton, and two other men working with bales of hay. The cotton texture is conveyed through use of a heavy impasto. Signed with initials "CH" center left. Housed in a molded gilt wood frame. Sight - 17 1/2" H x 23 1/2" W. Framed - 21 1/2" H x 27 1/2" W. American, circa 1950s to early 1960s. Note: we wish to thank Thomas Whitehead for confirming the authenticity of this painting. Provenance: Private Southern Collection. Biography: A self-taught artist, Clementine Hunter created bright, whimsical folk paintings depicting life in and around the Melrose cotton plantation where she lived and worked, near Natchitoches, Louisiana. She did not start painting until her 50s. She used whatever surfaces she could find, and, working from memory, recorded everyday life, from work in the cotton fields to baptisms and funerals. She rendered her figures, usually black, in expressionless profile and disregarded formal perspective and scale. Though she first exhibited in 1949, Hunter did not garner public attention until the 1970s when both the Museum of American Folk Art in New York and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibited her paintings. Even with such success, Hunter chose to stay in Louisiana, working at Melrose Plantation until 1970 when she moved to a small trailer a few miles away on an unmarked road. (source: The National Museum of Women in the Arts).
Condition Report: Overall very good condition. Pinprick holes to each corner; a few minor scattered dark marks and inclusions to sky area. Few scattered areas of minute paint loss, largest 1/8" to barrels, lower center.