Strongly influenced by the French Impressionists, Alson Skinner Clark painted landscapes and traveled and lived abroad for a large portion of his career before settling in Southern California, where he worked as a muralist, plein-air painter, and art instructor. From there, he traveled throughout Mexico and the Southwest. Clark was born into a prosperous business family in Chicago. After completing high school, he enrolled in the Art Institute of Chicago. However, he was not pleased with his instructor and left the school after six months. In 1896, he traveled to New York to study at the Art Students League under William Merritt Chase. Clark traveled to Paris in 1898 and studied for a few months at the Academie Carmen, under the guidance of James McNeill Whistler, who had an impact on his impressionist style. Following his return to the United States in 1901, Clark wed Atta Medora McMullin. They were in Paris from 1902 until the start of the war, and he started painting outside at that time. The Clarks traveled all across Europe, and their financial stability came from sales to galleries in New York and Chicago that carried his artwork. The Art Institute of Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy, Paris Salon, and National Academy of Design were among the locations for the exhibitions. Numerous landscapes, cityscapes, interiors, and figure studies—particularly of his wife, who remained his model—were among his numerous creations. It was around 1907 when Clark’s own stronger, impressionist style with light hues really began to bloom. The Clarks traveled to the Canal Zone in the spring of 1913, inspired by the construction of the Panama Canal, which was almost finished. Clark wanted to be part of the history-making project and created contacts to get close to the building site, labor trains, and laborers. He painted frantically in extreme heat to depict the Canal and railroad’s final completion. Clark created numerous pieces by June. John Trask, the director of the Fine Arts division of the upcoming Panama-Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco, was so impressed that he exhibited eighteen of Clark’s paintings in their own solo room. This display won Alson Clark a Bronze Award in 1915. He and his wife had been left stuck in Europe at the start of World War I, so they had to hand-carry some of the enormous artworks out of the continent. Clark had even become a military photographer at age 41, and that caused him to temporarily go partially deaf while dangling from airplanes to capture aerial shots. Clark primarily settled down in Southern California in the 1930’s, apart from some final tours in the US, Europe, and Mexico, where he would become enamored and inspired to paint by different religious architectures. He mobilized artisans to make military instruments during World War II. His health declined after the War, and in March 1949 he suffered a stroke that left him paralyzed; a week later, he passed away.
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