Clementina M. G. Tompkins (c. 1848 – November 9, 1931) was an American painter. Tompkins was born in Washington, D.C., to a family with roots in Virginia; through her father she was the niece of Sally Louisa Tompkins, in whose will she was remembered. Much of her professional career was spent in France, where she attended the

École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...

and studied with

Léon Bonnat Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (20 June 1833 – 8 September 1922) was a French painter, Grand Officer of the Légion d'honneur and professor at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Early life Bonnat was born in Bayonne, but from 1846 to 1853 he lived in Mad ...

. She showed work at the salons of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

and Brussels, and at the

Centennial Exposition The Centennial International Exhibition of 1876, the first official World's Fair to be held in the United States, was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from May 10 to November 10, 1876, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. She also sent work back to the United States for exhibition on other occasions. Tompkins favored Italian subjects for her paintings; she also produced portraits and figure pieces during her career. She spent time working in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

later in her career. One source claims she died in that city; another states that she died in the city of her birth, where she is buried in the Oak Hill Cemetery. It has been claimed that her work is held by both the

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

and the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and Private university, private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

, but it is unclear if this is still true.

References

1840s births 1931 deaths 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women painters American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts Painters from Washington, D.C. Burials at Oak Hill Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) 19th-century American women painters {{US-painter-1840s-stub