C. K. Chatterton Exhibition

Born in Newburgh, New York, Clarence K. Chatterton (1880-1973), came to Vassar in 1915 as the college's first artist-in-residence. He remained here for the next thirty-three years before retiring in 1948 as a full professor.

Chatterton, whose early interest was in illustration, enrolled in the New York School of Art, often referred to as the Chase School after its founder, William Merritt Chase. He studied with Frank Vincent DuMond, F. Luis Mora and, begininning in 1902, with Robert Henri who became the school's most influential teacher. Chatterton attended classes with Rockwell Kent, Gifford Beal, George Bellows and Edward Hopper, among others. Inspired by Henri, Chatterton, like many of his fellow students, did not restrict himself to illustration, but developed as an artist with a concern for the commonplace and an interest in portraying the beauty of daily life.

After completing his studies, Chatterton set up a studio on Waterstreet in downtown Newburgh in 1904. There, he discovered in the city's homes, building, streets and dockyards along the Hudson River, the subject matter that would continue to interest him throughout his career.

Chatterton's arrival at Vassar in 1915 coincided with the opening of Taylor Hall. His classroom, in the building's fourth floor tower, was a large, airy studio with a norther skylight and lovely view of the campus and surrounding countryside. Chatterton's students began by making charcoal drawings from a groups of plaster casts that were installed in the first floor gallery. Once his students had mastered the fundamentals, he introduced them to portrait painting and life drawing, a class that required the presence of a chaperon until 1920.

In the summer of 1918, Chatterton and Edward Hopper visited Monhegan Island and spent the next several summers sketching and painting the island. Maine's small, quiet fishing villages with their charming homes, rocky terrain, and ragged coastlines appealed to both artists whose chief concerns lay in recording the effects of light and air and in arranging nature's elemental structures into simple but forceful compositions.

Writing in 1965, Agnes Rindge Clafflin, Vassar's legendary profesor of art, summarized Chatterton's achievement:

"The painting of C.K. Chatterton offers refreshment and joy, that particular enhancement of life only a painting can give. We can see Chatterton's oeuvre as part of our tradition and we can relish it for its personal distinction."

This exhibition was organized to celebrate Taylor Hall, the art gallery's home for the past seventy-five years. We gratefully acknowledge Julia Chatterton Van de Water, the artist's daughter, for her assistance in preparing the exhibition and her generosity in lending works from her collection.

There are works that appeared in this exhibition that were loans to the Loeb and therefore do not appear on this website.