Winifred Johnson Clive: An Artist at Home and Abroad

Long time Orlando resident and supporter of the arts, Winifred Johnson Clive (1906-2001) was also a notable lifelong painter. Born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, Clive attended Wellesley College, the Boston Museum School of Art, before going to New York in 1930. There she studied painting with such distinguished American artists of the time as Cecilia Beaux, Felicia Howell and Winold Reiss.

In 1933 she made her way to Paris, where she continued her career until the outbreak of WWII. In 1940 she fled Paris as the German army advanced, traveling through Holland to make her way back to the United States. In New York again, in 1941, she was invited to exhibit works recovered from her Paris studio at the venerable Newhouse Galleries in New York. Clive spent the war years in Washington, D.C. where she met her husband, Peter Clive, a Royal Air Force Wing commander.

After the War the couple settled in Biarritz, France where Clive continued to paint, joining the French artist group Le Grenier, led by the painter Paul Rambié. The group practiced a style known as figuratif which combined elements of representational and abstract painting. Clive’s landscape, still life and figurative paintings reflect the influence of this style. These mature works are characterized by expressive brushwork and deep, rich colors.

The couple maintained a home in Orlando and following her husband’s death in 1978, Clive became a full time Orlando resident and generously supported many cultural organizations in Central Florida. She exhibited her work widely and in 1979 received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bethany College, in Bethany, West Virginia. The exhibition Winifred Johnson Clive: An Artist at Home and Aboard will include approximately 25 paintings selected from collections in Central Florida.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website