Rachel Hartley, Clearwater. Sugar Harvest, oil on board, 17 and 3/4 by 23 7/8 inches.
Rachel Hartley, the daughter of sculptor J. Scott Hartley, the niece of George Inness Jr., and the granddaughter of George Inness, was an early resident of Clearwater. She had a studio in Ozona and was an active member of the Clearwater Art Club and later the Clearwater Art Museum. Like her grandfather George Inness, she brought to her canvas a feeling of warm sunlight and deep shadow. In January 1936 Hartley donated her painting Greek Village, Tarpon Springs to the first art collection at the Clearwater Art Museum. A review of Hartley’s exhibit at the Clearwater Art Club appeared in the March 7, 1936, Clearwater Sun, “Miss Rachel Hartley’s paintings, shown at the Art Museum easily fall into three or four rather sharply differentiated groups. There are five large canvases with religious significance, in which the artist’s chief effort is concerned with problems of light radiating from the Christ on the Cross, symbolizing the inner light of the Spirit.
These pictures have been worked out with great care and are, in a large measure convincing. In sharp contrast with these paintings are a dozen or more quick sketches in oil and water color, mostly of Florida scenes. Miss Hartley’s ability to catch and depict the salient points of Negro cabin life is well known in art circles. A third group of paintings concern various phases of Southern life, worked out more carefully than the sketches. They include studies of Negro life, sponge boats and circus elephants. All make definite appeals to the observer. The last group is the few but effective studies of Florida landscapes, one of the best of which is a painting of a lone pine called, ‘The Sentinel.’ ‘Sunset Glow’ is boldly conceived and impressively executed. Three children stand on the shore looking toward a gorgeous sunset, such as may occasionally be seen over the Gulf on our Florida West Coast. Miss Hartley’s use of lavender in this picture and in the treatment of religious subjects is a strongly characteristic feature.”
Born: 1884, New York City.
Died: 1955.
Membership: Clearwater Art Club; Clearwater Art Museum: Florida Federation of Art; National Arts Club; Pen and Brush Club; Washington Arts Club; Federation of Arts of America; Art Students League.
Exhibits: Clearwater Art Club, March 1936, I Am the Resurrection and the Life, I Am the Light and the Way, Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me, Come Unto Me, The Sentinel, The Open Gate, Circus Elephants, Down de Glory Road, Florida Negro Life, Old Plantation Kitchen, Sunset Glow, The Dance of Peacock Alley, Who Say Dey Ain’t No Joy in Life, The White Peacock, Florida Brush Fire, Green Sponge Boat, Creek Boat Landing, Sponge Docks, Lay Down Yo’ Burden and Praise de Lord, Full Moon, Harbor Boat and Gulls, Greek Ship Builders, fifteen character sketches; Clearwater Art Club, Chamber of Commerce Building, February 1937; Clearwater Art Museum, January 1940, Florida Sugar Mill, Peacock Walk, Jacaranda Tree; Florida Federation of Art, circuited exhibition 1941-42, Orange Pickers; Clearwater Art Museum, Orange Pickers; Clearwater Art Museum, 8th Annual Members Exhibit, February 1942, Spring in the South, Kapok Tree; Florida Federation of Art Traveling Exhibit, April 1942; Florida Gulf Coast Art Center, 1949.
