A whimsical oil painting in mostly grays, blacks, and whites of a man and a woman on a patio gazing out on a moonlit snow scene.

Landscape by Moonlight

Clara McDonald Williamson (1875-1976)

Date

1957-1958
Object Type

Paintings
Medium

Oil on canvas
Dimensions

24 1/8 x 17 7/8 in.
Inscriptions

recto:
signed, l.r.: Clara McD. Williamson
Credit Line

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. Pierce McDonald Williamson
Accession Number

2005.10
Copyright

© Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Williamson took up painting in her 60s, following the death of her husband in 1943. Living in Dallas at the time, she took a few art classes at Southern Methodist University and at the former Dallas Museum School of Art, but for the most part she was self-taught. Working first in charcoal and watercolor and later in oil, she created scenes inspired by her rural childhood in Central Texas.

Williamson’s inventive, narrative-rich compositions soon caught the eye of prominent local artists, including Jerry Bywaters, then the director of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts (now the Dallas Museum of Art), who gave Williamson her first solo exhibition in 1948. Williamson, or “Aunt Clara” as she came to be known, made more than 100 paintings over her lengthy career, and she became one of the nation’s best-known folk artists.

—Text taken from the Carter Handbook (2023)

Texas Folk Art

October 16, 2015–September 25, 2016

Texas Folk Art features the spirited work of some of Texas’ most original painters who use a lack of convention and lively storytelling in order to create animated narratives about working, playing, and worshipping in Texas.

Location: Off view

See more by Clara McDonald Williamson

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