Landscape, 1875
Oil on canvas, 33-3/4 x 46-1/2 inches
Private Collection

Clara Ester Lucas, daughter of Nathaniel Henry and Mary Barton (Maury) Lucas, was born October 24, 1856 in Warren County, Kentucky. Family tradition holds that Lucas painted while attending Halsell's Female Academy in Bowling Green. The academy was run by Lucas's uncle Reverend James Halsell. The landscape in this exhibit is dated 1875 making Clara nineteen years old at the time of its execution. It is not known if Lucas had any formal training in the arts other than what she may have received at Halsell's. At age 41 she married Nashville's James Wilson Helm in 1897. With this marriage Clara suddenly became a wife and mother of 8 children by Helm's first wife who, incidentally, was Clara's sister Virginia. The Helms lived in the rural community of Auburn in Logan County. Clara Lucas Helm moved to Warren County a few years before her death on January 8, 1950.

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November 13, 2001
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