GENERAL DESCRIPTION
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the route of the cattle drives between Texas and Abilene, Kansas, between 1867 and 1884, forms the basis of a "memory picture" for "Aunt Clara," as the artist was affectionately called by the Dallas art community. Largely a self-taught artist, she was born and raised in Iredell, Texas. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. As she recalled, "To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cow-boy dialect."
Adapted from
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 271.
NOTES
This note was started by Erin Pinon, summer 2016 and saved as #incomplete. EAS will submit this #draft after reviewing the associated objects/files.
Created in 1945
Reviewed object file.
Reviewed TMS record.
No education file for Williamson found.
Removed text (old label) from curatorial remarks and added it as a text entry. Same text also found in the education files.
Added 2012 DMA Guide text as a text entry:
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the late nineteenth-century route between the ranches of Texas and the rail yards of Abilene, Kansas, forms the basis of a “memory picture” by Clara McDonald Williamson. Largely a self-taught artist, she was born and raised in Iredell, Texas. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. As she recalled, “To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd, the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cowboy dialect.”
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 271.
Added the existing label copy/ publica notes as a text entry so that it is properly archived. Did not remove the text from public notes or label copy.
Williamson grew up in Iredell, where passing cattle drives provided an exciting diversion from daily work, and afforded the small town its principal source of income. In the 1940s, Williamson began painting her memories of the honest, hardscrabble life of the frontier in canvases that charm with their forthrightness. The little girl under the trees in "Get Along Little Dogies" is Clara herself, watching as a cowboy pursues a maverick who has broken away from the herd crossing the nearby Bosque River.
General Description full text:
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the late nineteenth-century route between the ranches of Texas and the rail yards of Abilene, Kansas, forms the basis of a “memory picture” by Clara McDonald Williamson. Largely a self-taught artist, she was born and raised in Iredell, Texas. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. As she recalled, “To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd, the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cowboy dialect.”
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 271.
Exhibitions:
The Art Center, Waco Texas, "Clara McDonald Williamson Exhibition," 12/4/1976-1/2/1977
75 Years of Art in Dallas : History of the DAA & DMFA, DMFA, 1/25/1978-3/12/1978
Current label copy in TMS:
"To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cow-boy dialect," wrote Clara Williamson, a largely self-taught artist born and raised in Iredell, Texas.
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the route of the cattle drives between Texas and Abilene, Kansas, between 1867 and 1884, forms the basis of a "memory picture" for "Aunt Clara," as the artist was affectionately called by the Dallas art community. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. In 1948 the "Art Digest" called this work "a painting to rival [Edward] Hicks' 'Peaceable Kingdom,'" a version of which is on view in the American galleries.
William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1945.11), July 2005.
From EAS note to add or compare to this note drafted by Pinion:
Williamson, Clara McDonald (American painter, 1875-1976)
Added artist birth date.
Added exhibition title from exhibition Aunt Clara- Get Along Little Dogies (Git 'Long Little Dogies)
Older provenance documentation in file- donor- Mr. and Mrs. E. M. (Ted) Dealey
Other works by this artist:
1945.8
2007.15.62
Text from Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 ed. by Patricia Trenton
"Clara Williamson (1875-1976) enrolled in an art class at Southern Methodist University. Her life had been extremely busy and full until the death of her husband. As she reminisced, " I grew up on the frontier where life was hard...I liked the beautiful country but never had an opportunity to express myself." Jerry Bywaters, director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and a teacher at Southern Methodist University, had encouraged Clara to enroll in classes. When Bywaters purchased one of her paintings for the museum's collection, the news of Clara WIlliamson's accompmlishments spread rapidly. Donald Vogel, a Dallas artists and gallery owner with his wife, Margaret, took "Aunt Clara" under his wing, selling and documenting her work and encouraging her to continue her "painting from memory." Williamson recalled:
I was raised for the most part by old women. I use the words "raised" and "old" with deliberateness, for they go together. I was raised, also, by two old Texans, one a great-grandmother who had frontiered it in an Erath County dugout, had killed a panther with an ax and made her own soap almost to the day of her death...I have always had a fondness for old women...I [have] collect[ed] their images, the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties of the Nineteenth Century, those simpler times, particularly as they were lived in Texas and most particularly as they were lived in my own part..of this vast state where... I feel most at home.
Of her memory painting, Get Along Little Dogies, 1945, Williamson commented: "To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd the cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cow-boy dialect." Williamson's hometown, Iredell, was a stopover on the Chisholm Trail, and she included herself in the picture standing under a tree as the cowboys guide the longhorns across the Bosque River. Clara Williamson painted until she was nienty-one and lived to be one hundred. Sometimes described as "strong-willed," she called herself "an honest old sister." "Paintings," she said, "should reflect truthfulness and beauty of the soul." The art of Clara Williamson bears witness to Texas's frontier hsitory and becomes a record of a way of life long vanished."
p. 191-195
See catalogue in PICTION- Catalog from the exhibition, 'Clara Williamson: Paintings,' February 29-March 21, 1948, held at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Includes: list of artworks in the exhibition, selected images, biographical note.
Publication:
Donald and Margaret Vogel, Aunt Clara; the Paintings of Clara McDonald Williamson. Austin, the University of Texas Press for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1966. (Ill. b/w, p. 50; text pp. 49, 51)
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location: Chisholm Trail (route): TGN: 6001413
Depicted location: Bosque (county/Texas): TGN: 1002191
Depicted location: Bosque River (river/Texas): TGN: 2188216
Place of origin: Dallas (Texas/United States): TGN: 7013503
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Before 1946: Clara McDonald Williamson
From 1946: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Ted Dealey Purchase Prize, Seventeenth Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, 1946 [1]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
AUDIO ASSETS
VIDEO ASSETS
IMAGE ASSETS
WEB RESOURCES
- Clara McDonald Williamson, Biography~Learn more about Clara McDonald Williamson at the Texas State Historical Association website.
ARCHIVAL RESOURCES
FUN FACTS
- In 1948 the "Art Digest" called this work "a painting to rival [Edward] Hicks' 'Peaceable Kingdom,'" a version of which is on view in the American galleries.
TEACHING IDEAS
RULES
Apply to objects where number equals 1946.11
Category
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General Description
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the route of the cattle drives between Texas and Abilene, Kansas, between 1867 and 1884, forms the basis of a "memory picture" for "Aunt Clara," as the artist was affectionately called by the Dallas art community. Largely a self-taught artist, she was born and raised in Iredell, Texas. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. As she recalled, "To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cow-boy dialect."
Adapted from
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 271.
Fun Facts
- In 1948 the "Art Digest" called this work "a painting to rival [Edward] Hicks' 'Peaceable Kingdom,'" a version of which is on view in the American galleries.
Archival Resources
Web Resources
- Clara McDonald Williamson, Biography~Learn more about Clara McDonald Williamson at the Texas State Historical Association website.
Notes
This note was started by Erin Pinon, summer 2016 and saved as #incomplete. EAS will submit this #draft after reviewing the associated objects/files.
Created in 1945
Reviewed object file.
Reviewed TMS record.
No education file for Williamson found.
Removed text (old label) from curatorial remarks and added it as a text entry. Same text also found in the education files.
Added 2012 DMA Guide text as a text entry:
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the late nineteenth-century route between the ranches of Texas and the rail yards of Abilene, Kansas, forms the basis of a “memory picture” by Clara McDonald Williamson. Largely a self-taught artist, she was born and raised in Iredell, Texas. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. As she recalled, “To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd, the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cowboy dialect.”
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 271.
Added the existing label copy/ publica notes as a text entry so that it is properly archived. Did not remove the text from public notes or label copy.
Williamson grew up in Iredell, where passing cattle drives provided an exciting diversion from daily work, and afforded the small town its principal source of income. In the 1940s, Williamson began painting her memories of the honest, hardscrabble life of the frontier in canvases that charm with their forthrightness. The little girl under the trees in "Get Along Little Dogies" is Clara herself, watching as a cowboy pursues a maverick who has broken away from the herd crossing the nearby Bosque River.
General Description full text:
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the late nineteenth-century route between the ranches of Texas and the rail yards of Abilene, Kansas, forms the basis of a “memory picture” by Clara McDonald Williamson. Largely a self-taught artist, she was born and raised in Iredell, Texas. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. As she recalled, “To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd, the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cowboy dialect.”
Bonnie Pitman, ed., Dallas Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collection (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 271.
Exhibitions:
The Art Center, Waco Texas, "Clara McDonald Williamson Exhibition," 12/4/1976-1/2/1977
75 Years of Art in Dallas : History of the DAA & DMFA, DMFA, 1/25/1978-3/12/1978
Current label copy in TMS:
"To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd the Cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cow-boy dialect," wrote Clara Williamson, a largely self-taught artist born and raised in Iredell, Texas.
A cattle drive along the Chisholm Trail, the route of the cattle drives between Texas and Abilene, Kansas, between 1867 and 1884, forms the basis of a "memory picture" for "Aunt Clara," as the artist was affectionately called by the Dallas art community. Williamson began her first art class at Southern Methodist University in 1943, at age sixty-eight, using her childhood memories as subject matter. In 1948 the "Art Digest" called this work "a painting to rival [Edward] Hicks' 'Peaceable Kingdom,'" a version of which is on view in the American galleries.
William Keyse Rudolph, DMA Label copy (1945.11), July 2005.
From EAS note to add or compare to this note drafted by Pinion:
Williamson, Clara McDonald (American painter, 1875-1976)
Added artist birth date.
Added exhibition title from exhibition Aunt Clara- Get Along Little Dogies (Git 'Long Little Dogies)
Older provenance documentation in file- donor- Mr. and Mrs. E. M. (Ted) Dealey
Other works by this artist:
1945.8
2007.15.62
Text from Independent Spirits: Women Painters of the American West, 1890-1945 ed. by Patricia Trenton
"Clara Williamson (1875-1976) enrolled in an art class at Southern Methodist University. Her life had been extremely busy and full until the death of her husband. As she reminisced, " I grew up on the frontier where life was hard...I liked the beautiful country but never had an opportunity to express myself." Jerry Bywaters, director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts and a teacher at Southern Methodist University, had encouraged Clara to enroll in classes. When Bywaters purchased one of her paintings for the museum's collection, the news of Clara WIlliamson's accompmlishments spread rapidly. Donald Vogel, a Dallas artists and gallery owner with his wife, Margaret, took "Aunt Clara" under his wing, selling and documenting her work and encouraging her to continue her "painting from memory." Williamson recalled:
I was raised for the most part by old women. I use the words "raised" and "old" with deliberateness, for they go together. I was raised, also, by two old Texans, one a great-grandmother who had frontiered it in an Erath County dugout, had killed a panther with an ax and made her own soap almost to the day of her death...I have always had a fondness for old women...I [have] collect[ed] their images, the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties of the Nineteenth Century, those simpler times, particularly as they were lived in Texas and most particularly as they were lived in my own part..of this vast state where... I feel most at home.
Of her memory painting, Get Along Little Dogies, 1945, Williamson commented: "To prevent the little orphan calves from falling behind and getting lost from the herd the cow-boys would often gently prod them along; all the while singing and talking to them in the typical and amusing cow-boy dialect." Williamson's hometown, Iredell, was a stopover on the Chisholm Trail, and she included herself in the picture standing under a tree as the cowboys guide the longhorns across the Bosque River. Clara Williamson painted until she was nienty-one and lived to be one hundred. Sometimes described as "strong-willed," she called herself "an honest old sister." "Paintings," she said, "should reflect truthfulness and beauty of the soul." The art of Clara Williamson bears witness to Texas's frontier hsitory and becomes a record of a way of life long vanished."
p. 191-195
See catalogue in PICTION- Catalog from the exhibition, 'Clara Williamson: Paintings,' February 29-March 21, 1948, held at the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts. Includes: list of artworks in the exhibition, selected images, biographical note.
Publication:
Donald and Margaret Vogel, Aunt Clara; the Paintings of Clara McDonald Williamson. Austin, the University of Texas Press for the Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1966. (Ill. b/w, p. 50; text pp. 49, 51)
Artist/designers
Cultures
Geography
Depicted location: Chisholm Trail (route): TGN: 6001413
Depicted location: Bosque (county/Texas): TGN: 1002191
Depicted location: Bosque River (river/Texas): TGN: 2188216
Place of origin: Dallas (Texas/United States): TGN: 7013503
Process/materials
Historical periods
Individuals
Subject terms
RELATED OBJECTS
PROVENANCE
Before 1946: Clara McDonald Williamson
From 1946: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Ted Dealey Purchase Prize, Seventeenth Annual Dallas Allied Arts Exhibition, 1946 [1]
[1] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.
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number
Equals
1946.11
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object_notes_3_c-0045.xml.nores