Kate Freeman Clark

Kate Freeman Clark (September 3, 1875 – March 3, 1957) was an American painter born in Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Clark was the daughter of Edward Clark, an attorney in Vicksburg, Mississippi, and Cary Freeman Clark, whose great-uncle was Edward Cary Walthall. An only child, she was named for her grandmother, and was called "Little Kate" to distinguish her from "Mama Kate". Soon after her birth her father purchased a plantation which would later become the centerpiece of the town of Cary, named for his wife. Kate and her mother summered in Holly Springs, where the air was considered cleaner than along the Mississippi Delta, and Edward would write his daughter long letters during these absences. The family soon moved to New York City, where Kate attended finishing school at the Gardiner School, from which she graduated in 1891. In 1893 the two went to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, which fired in the young woman a passion for art. Upon returning to New York City, she enrolled in the Art Students League in 1894; there she studied drawing with John Henry Twachtman and watercolor with Irving Ramsay Wiles. Chase respected her work highly, choosing two of her paintings for his personal collection. However, in 1924, after over 20 years in New York Clark returned to Mississippi and her southern roots, leaving the art world behind forever. The museum, which apart from a handful of pieces by Chase contains only her work, is located next to her former home, and with more than 1,000 of her paintings is believed to be the largest collection of paintings by a single artist anywhere in the world.

Clark is buried at Hillcrest Cemetery in Holly Springs.

Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, South Carolina The Johnson Collection, Spartanburg, South Carolina Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery, Holly Springs, Mississippi Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, Tennessee Private collections