African American folk artist and centenarian, Clementine Hunter created this painting, Baptizing with Lady in Orange Dress,in the 1960s. Her imagery opened  a window onto the lives of African Americans living, working, and worshiping in the rural South during the twentieth century.

Born at Hidden Hill Plantation near Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1886, Hunter was the granddaughter of a formerly enslaved worker. She grew up among Cane River cotton and pecan farming, with little formal education. Hunter and her family moved to nearby Melrose Plantation around 1900, where she remained the rest of her life.

Hunter is encouraged to take up palette and brush by her plantation owner’s wife in 1939 after a visiting artist leaves behind painting materials. As a result, Hunter creates her first work at age 53 and embarks on a long career painting imagery that would illuminate African American life and culture in Louisiana’s Cane River region.

This artist painted her vibrantly colored, stylized imagery on everything from cardboard to buckets. She created an estimated 5,000 pieces during her career, mostly in her home studio at Melrose. These images reflect memories of work, leisure, religion, and death within Louisiana’s Cane River region. She particularly enjoyed painting baptism scenes, including the one depicted here. Such images reflect the importance of religious ceremonies in the lives of African-Americans in the Deep South.

Hunter’s art began circulating throughout the nation in the 1950s. Today she is recognized as one of America’s most influential folk artists of the twentieth century.

The painting above, Baptizing with Lady in Orange Dress, is now in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visitors to the museum can view art by Clementine Hunter in the “Visual Art” exhibition.

Credits and Sources:

2014.176.5 - Baptizing with Lady in Orange Dress, 1960s. Created by: Clementine Hunter. Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of the Rand and Dana Jack family, in honor of Rand's grandmother, Blythe Rand, © Cane River Art Corporation.

Allured, Janet. Louisiana Women: Their Lives and Times. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2009. E-Book. Accessed December 29, 2015. https://books.google.com/books?id=R4KXWIdbqToC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

"HISTORY." Melrose Plantation. Accessed December 30, 2015. http://www.melroseplantation.org/history/.

National Park Service. "Yucca (Melrose) Plantation--Cane River National Heritage Area: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary." National Park Service. Accessed December 30, 2015. http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/caneriver/mel.htm.