Clementine Hunter was born on a plantation in Louisiana, which not many years earlier, legend has it, served as the source of inspiration for
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin. She worked on the plantation from an early age, never learning to read or write. In childhood, she traveled with her family through plantations, until arriving at the Melrose Plantation, where she spent the rest of her life. She married twice and had seven children. In 1928 she began working as a laundress, and in her spare time sewed clothed for the plantation children and their dolls, and created baskets and splendid, vividly colored quilts.

- The discovery -
Melrose Plantation was an artist's paradise. Its owners, John Hampton and Carmelita Garritt Henry (Miss Cammie), were dedicated to preserving the indigenous arts and crafts of the area, and supported artists and writers who spent time at the plantation. In 1938, librarian Fran.ois Mignon, who became the plantation's curator, identif ied Clementine's talent. Per his encouragement, she began painting at 54. Over the next 40 years, Clementine created some 4,000 pictures. In the 1940s collectors began stopping at the plantation to purchase her work (for 25 and 50 cents a piece), and in 1949, following the efforts of these collectors, her paintings were included in the "New Orleans Arts and Crafts Show." In 1953, an essay about her workwas published in Look Magazine, after which she won recognition throughout the USA.

- The work -
Hunter's paintings depict the life of her community: plantation life,
leisure activities, religious beliefs and rituals. She used paints left
behind by visiting artists, and when she could not get hold of canvases,
she painted on window shades, bottles, cardboard, and brown paper bags.