Clark, Alson (1876-1949).

Balboa Park, San Diego by Alson Clark (1876-1949) 18.2" x 22", Oil/Board, Signed Est.: $20,000 - $25,000 Sold by John Moran Auctioneers for $55,000 on 2/13/2001

Born in Chicago, Illinois on March 25, 1876, Alson Clark, at age 11 enrolled at the Art Institute of Chicago, continued in New York City at the Art Students League, and with William Merritt Chase and Frank Duveneck.

Late in 1898 he went to Paris for further study at Académie Carmen under James Whistler. Returning to the U.S. in 1901, he established a studio in Watertown, New York, and then returned to Chicago where in 1903 sales in a successful exhibition allowed for travel in Canada and Europe.

After serving as an aerial photographer in WWI, he settled in southern California where in 1922 he and Guy Rose formed the teaching faculty of Pasadena's Stickney Art School. During this period he also had a studio in Palm Springs. He taught landscape classes at Occidental College in Eagle Rock in the late 1930s.

Clark died of a heart attack in Pasadena on March 22, 1949. One of southern California's most renowned painters, his early portraits and figure studies evince the somber tonalities of Whistler. After painting in Giverny with Guy Rose and other impressionists, by 1910 his palette had begun to brighten considerably.

MEMBER
American AA of Paris; Chicago Society of Artists; LA AA; Salmagundi Club; SWA; Calif PM. Exh: Paris Salon, 1901; Louisiana Purchase Expo (St Louis), 1904 (bronze medal); AIC, 1906 (solo); PPIE, 1915 (bronze medal); Calif. Art Club, 1920-30; LACMA, 1922, 1924 (prizes), 1929; Southwest Museum (LA), 1923 (grand prize); Stendahl Gallery (LA), 1923; San Diego FA Gallery, 1923, 1937 (solo); Painters of the West (LA), 1924; Pasadena Art Inst., 1925, 1931 (2nd prize), 1933 (1st prize); Pasadena Society of Artists, 1927; Pasadena Public Library, 1928; LA AA, 1937; GGIE, 1939; Calif. WC Society, 1940.

COLLECTIONS
Victoria & Albert Museum (London); AIC; LACMA; Muskegon (MI) Art Gallery; San Diego Museum; Watertown (NY) Public Library; Gardena High School; CSL; Pasadena Community Theatre; First Nat'l Bank of Pasadena (mural); Univ. Club (Pasadena); Irvine (CA) Museum; Women's Athletic Club (LA); Fleischer Museum (Scottsdale); Orange Co. (CA) Museum; Cathay Circle Theatre, LA (murals).
Source:
Edan Hughes, "Artists in California, 1786-1940"
Who's Who in America 1918; Who's Who in California 1928; California Impressionism (Wm. Gerdts & Will South); American Art Annual 1933; Who's Who in American Art 1936-47; Artists of the American West (Samuels); Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs (Bénézit, E); Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers (Fielding, Mantle); Southern California Artists (Nancy Moure); Plein Air Painters (Ruth Westphal); NY Times, 3-24-1949 (obituary).