Clementine Hunter
Melrose Plantation Complex , 1975
Oil on Canvas Board
18 x 24
in
“Melrose Complex” presents an intimate, circular view of Clementine Hunter’s home at Melrose Plantation. Inside the round frame, the yellow "Big House" rises on a gentle slope, surrounded by trees and the smaller structures that shaped daily life. At the bottom edge of this enclosed world, a woman bends over a blue tub washing clothes, a reminder that the plantation was sustained by the constant work of its residents rather than by the buildings alone.
The Yucca House, Ghana House, and African House appear as distinct green, red, and white forms, each given its own personality through simple shapes and strong color. Together they form a compact map of the plantation as remembered from lived experience rather than strict perspective. This scene relates closely to Hunter’s other memory paintings of Melrose and to the African House murals, where she also gathered buildings, roads, and work scenes into clear, rhythmic arrangements that honor the people and places of her life.
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