Carter - "Front Porch" Watercolor painting of view from front porch of yellow house overlooking a barn, field and landscape

Clarence Holbrook Carter • American (1904-2000)

Front Porch • Watercolor on Paper

A country boy in the big city thought he was doing a good job. Clarence Carter had a rude introduction to Cleveland. As a young boy in the Ohio River town of Portsmouth, he’d won every art contest he entered, including prizes at the Ohio State Fair. But, when he arrived at the Cleveland Institute of Art he soon realized he was far behind students who had been better educated in the city’s public schools. Slowly he gained his footing and clawed his way up. His fascination with artists like Ludovico Cardi, a 16th Century Italian Mannerist, helped him find his bearings.

One fateful day William Milliken, one of the most imposing figures in the world of art, walked through the school’s studio and saw Carter painstakingly painting a copy of Cardi’s Pieta. He had the school’s permission to do the painting, but no one told him he couldn’t make it the same size as Cardi’s original. An innocent mistake, but a big deal to the director of a large, culturally significant museum. Even an innocent forgery could infect the global market for museum quality art.

But, the kid’s painting was so good, Milliken couldn’t bring himself to destroy it. Instead he shipped it off to the Belgian doctor who owned the original and asked his permission for the kid to keep his painting. A few months later the doctor returned the painting with a series of stamps on the back granting his approval for Carter to keep the work. Case closed, career started.

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Milliken was so taken with Carter’s talents that he became an early patron. He arranged for Carter to tour Europe in the late 1920s by enticing Cleveland area collectors to buy 5 Carter paintings from that year’s May Show at the museum. With the $800 he earned Clarence Carter was able to tour Italy, France and Switzerland. As he traveled he sent more paintings home to Cleveland in order to richly finance his travels. On the boat ride home he met a seasick girl who became his wife.

By the end of his life, Carter had become world-renowned for a distinctive style of realism that became known as “Magic Realism,” where subjects were placed in thought-provoking situations. His work appears major museum collections around the world, including the Canton Museum of Art. And it all started with an accidental forgery.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased by the Canton Museum of Art 2010.7

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“This painting was done during his earlier Realism years. After WWII ended his style became more Surrealist, and was often classified as Magic Realism”

2.
“As a youth he won many First Prizes at the County and State Fairs, but felt far behind the other students when he attended the Cleveland Institute of Art.”

3.
“He is well known for his ‘Over and Above’ series of paintings showing giant animals peering over walls. Amazing work.”

4.
“His father and younger sisters died while Carter was in High School, fueling his lifelong fascination with the precariousness of life.”

Carter Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1904

Born into a family he described as having “artistic flair” in a 1964 interview. “They didn’t do anything themselves but they were always encouraging, and my father took a great deal of pride in what I always did.” He was born and grew up in Portsmouth, Ohio.

1913

A story in the local Portsmouth paper said that 9-year old Clarence Carter would grow up to be a famous artist. He took it to heart and never considered any other career.

1917-1922

Won numerous prizes in local art competitions at the County Fair, and even won First Prize awards in an art competition at the Ohio State Fair. His father and two younger sisters died while Clarence was in High School. This is often used to explain why so many of his paintings deal with the precariousness of life.

1922-1926

Attended what is now known as the Cleveland Institute of Art in Cleveland, Ohio. There he was overwhelmed by competition from other students with better training from their local public high schools. By his Junior year he regained his footing and began having work accepted to the large May Show staged by the Cleveland Museum of Art.

1925

Carter was intrigued by the work of Ludovico Cardi. “I was interested in morbid subjects. I think many adolescents go into that phase.” William Milliken, Director of the Cleveland Museum of Art, was horrified upon finding him copying Cardi’s Pieta not realizing it was a learning project. It was an innocent mistake that led to Milliken becoming Carter’s first great patron.

1927

Milliken got some well-known Cleveland art collectors to buy 10 of Carter’s paintings from the May Show at the museum. The $800 he earned financed Carter’s first trip to study and paint in Europe. Sales of paintings he sent home to Cleveland financed his continuing European travels.

1928

Harold Woodbury Parsons, the foreign representative of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, began buying his paintings for the museums. On the boat returning to America he won the prize for most Hysterical Costume and met Mary Griswold from Elmira, NY. A passionate romance followed and they soon married and returned to Cleveland to live.

1928

The Brooklyn Museum of Art showed 10 of his watercolors in their 1928 International Watercolor Exhibition. Carter’s watercolor technique involved precise use of form, quick color washes and little retouching.

1931

Participated in the American Scenes and Subjects exhibition at the Frank Rehn Gallery in New York. His work was shown alongside paintings by Edward Hopper and fellow Ohio artist, Charles Burchfield.

1937-38

As the Depression hit, Carter became the General Superintendent of the Federal Arts Project in northeastern Ohio for the Works Project Administration (WPA). He employed such well-known Cleveland artists as William Zorach and William Summers. His contract called for him to work 3 days a week so that he could create his own art the other 3 days.

1938-44

Due to the success of his WPA work, Carter was hired at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh to shape up their art program. He remained a teacher there until the end of World War II.

1943

Carter was included in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) exhibition, American Realists and Magic Realists.

1945

After World War II, Carter’s art began to take on a more modernist style. He developed a highly-crafted style much in keeping with Surrealist sensibilities. This was in sharp contrast to the more realistic style of his Depression-era art that catalogued rural American scenes from that time.

1949

Elected into the National Academy of Design as an associate member. He became a full member in 1964.

1962

Served as Vice-President of the American Watercolor Society.

1964

Conducted an in-depth oral history of his life for the James Michener Museum. All of the quotes in this edition of ARTe are taken from that interview.

1974

A New Jersey resident in the later part of his life, Carter was given a retrospective at the New Jersey State Museum.

2000

Died at the age of 96 at home in New Jersey.