He claimed that a warehouse where he stored opera sets he designed was flooded, leaving him without a source of income.Īround 2000, Robert Lucky, Jr. Toye has told several people that he and his wife were left destitute when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in August 2005.
#Clementine hunter license#
The board did not suspend the license of Causey, who died in 2004. Toye filed complaints against Causey with the Louisiana Auctioneers Licensing Board, stating that Causey had failed to pay Toye for paintings sold at auction. Geoffrey Toye, accused LAE owner Ronald Causey of counterfeiting the works. Ultimately a number of the works, including a “Matisse” and a “Degas,” were determined to be fakes. In 1996, the Toyes consigned paintings to the Louisiana Auction Exchange (LAE) in Baton Rouge. In 1974, Toye was arrested on twenty-two counts of forgery for making and selling “Hunter” paintings. In 1969, he told police his apartment had been broken into and fifty paintings by him had been stolen or vandalized. Newspaper accounts show that William Toye was working as an artist in New Orleans by the 1960s. knowingly sold forgeries as original, authentic works of art by Clementine Hunter.” They are suspected of conspiracy and mail fraud. “engaged in a conspiracy and a scheme to defraud several victims Louisiana and in other states. Armed with a search warrant, agents swarmed the Toyes’ house for five hours, hauling away paintings, art supplies, computers, typewriters, and documents.įBI documents say the Toyes and New Orleans antiques dealer Robert Lucky, Jr. Last September, the artist’s work became the center of a scandal when the FBI raided the Baton Rouge house of William and Beryl Toye, who are suspected of selling about $100,000 worth of fake Hunters.
At first she sold them for a dollar or less, but by the time she died in 1988 at 101, her paintings commanded thousands of dollars when sold by dealers. A folk artist was born.Ĭlementine (pronounced Clementeen) depicted scenes familiar to her-weddings, baptisms, cotton picking, fights at a juke joint. Have a Clementine Hunter you want to sell? We buy and consign original Clementine Hunter paintings.Louisiana legend Clementine Hunter was working as a cook at Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches when she picked up discarded tubes of paint and “marked a picture” on a window shade. Your Clementine Hunter deserves a good home, email us if we can help! Have a Clementine Hunter you want to sell? We buy and consign original Clementine Hunter paintings. Looking for a Clementine Hunter? We can help! Her work can also be seen in the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of American Folk Art, the Dallas Museum of Fine Art, and the New York Historical Association. Hunter was the first African-Amerian artist to have a solo exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art, and prominent collectors include Oprah Winfrey and the late Joan Rivers, among many others. Many of her paintings feature similar subjects, but each painting is unique. Hunter's work features colorful displays of plantation life with powerful expressive force. Hunter painted from memory, and her works portray cotton and pecan picking, washing clothes, baptisms, and funerals. Hunter is one of the most well-known self-taught artists, often referred to as the black Grandma Moses. Though she is considered a folk artist legend, she spent her entire life in poverty, even though she was selling her pieces of art in the 1970's for hundreds of dollars. She died in 1988 in Natchitoches, Louisiana. Hunter was the granddaughter of a former slave. Hunter received an hoary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Northwestern State University in 1986. By the end of her life, her works were exhibited in museums around the world and sold by dealers and galleries for thousands of dollars. Her first paintings sold for as little as 25 cents. Her work depicted plantation life in the early 20th century, documenting a bygone era. She is also Louisiana's most famous female artist. Hunter a self-taught African-American artist from the Cane River region of Louisiana, lived and worked on Melrose Plantation. Clementine Hunter was Louisiana's most celebrated and beloved folk artist.
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