Timeline
Clinton in his Paris studio, 14 Rue Boissanade (shared with Charles Guerin) c.1920s
Clinton Clement O’Callahan, 1890 - 1943
Clinton O’Callahan was a prolific artist during his short life, despite struggling with a wartime injury and subsequent possible periods of depression and alcoholism. The art that survives and is displayed virtually on this site clearly displays his extraordinary talent as an emerging modern American artist. The art critics of the day both abroad and in the U.S. took note and wrote about his many exhibitions with praise. He travelled frequently, was very involved with art societies and groups, and enjoyed being surrounded and influenced by the creative writers and artists in Paris and America during the 1920s. It was an exciting time and he excelled in his craft. His prolific period was sandwiched between World War I and World War II and he passed away suddenly before he could settle back into his studio in Paris for the latter part of his life.
This timeline gives a snapshot of how his life unfolded but please follow the links to more information about his wartime experience and the CT Student Art League, his exhibitions, his art mentors and teachers, and more personal information to help fill out the full picture of his life.
1890 Born Hartford, CT (one of eleven children)
1906 Hartford Public High School. Early interest in art - Private tutelage with Henry C. White
1908 Began studies with Charles Noel Flagg (until 1919), became close friends with Milton Avery
1909 Began studies with Charles Hawthorne in Provincetown, MA (summers until 1920)
1917 Enlisted in U.S. Army, 101st Machine Gun Battalion
1918 WWI, gassed at Front, hospitalized
1919 Discharged in the U.S; returned to Paris
1920 Studied/painted with Charles Guerin, Académie Colarossi, Grande Chaumière
1921 Travelled to Algiers and Marseille; Exhibit, Salon d'Automne
1922 Exhibit, Salon des Indépendants
1923 Exhibit, Salon des Tuileries; Carnegie International Exposition
1924 Exhibit one-man shows, Hartford Atheneum Annex, Babcock Galleries New York
1925 Exhibit at various Salons, Paris
1926 Formed Groupe des Peintres et Sculpteurs Americains a Paris, exhibit at Durand-Ruel
1927 Group exhibit at Brooklyn Museum of American Art, followed by National Tour
1927 Continued exhibiting in New York and Paris through 1932
1928 Exhibit at Knoedler Gallery, Paris
1930 Exhibit at the Hartford Atheneum
1932 Travelled to Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain with wife Monica Bliss and in 1933 his son, Juan was born on Majorca
1934 Moved to Cornwall, England; Back to Paris
1939 Returned to America, via Madrid at the outbreak of WWII
1943 Died in Gloucester, MA