Huguette Clark Exhibit Extended; Popup Added

Due to popular demand, “Huguette Marcelle Clark: A Portrait of the Artist”, the first exhibition of the Santa Barbara heiress’ artwork since 1931, has been extended two weeks at the Santa Barbara Historical Museum.

In addition, starting on June 2, a special pop-up displays Spanish shawls, dresses and intricately designed accessories from the family’s collection of items relating to Old Spanish Days, a Santa Barbara tradition that began in 1924. The exhibit and pop-up are presented in collaboration with the Bellosguardo Foundation ( www.bellosguardo.org ), and both run through Sunday, June 26.

The exhibition, which opened in February 2020, presents self-portraits, portraits, a still life, a ballerina, and a Spanish dancer, among others. Several of the works selected, all oils, were conserved in anticipation of the exhibition. Also on view is a selection of personal items from her photo albums and scrapbooks which illustrate her childhood and early life in Santa Barbara.

As a young woman, Clark studied painting with renowned portraitist Tadeusz (Tadé) Styka, whose portrait of Clark is also on view in the exhibit. Not only a painter, Clark was also a musician and collector of decorative and fine art, costumes, exquisitely fashioned dolls, and fine jewels.

Born in 1906, Huguette Marcelle Clark was the daughter of copper magnate and U.S. Senator William Andrews Clark. She spent much of her childhood and early adulthood in Santa Barbara at the 23-acre, oceanfront Bellosguardo estate, the family’s summer home. Huguette inherited the property in 1963. Upon her death in 2011 at the age of 104, she bequeathed it to the Bellosguardo Foundation with the goal of transforming it into a focal point for art and culture in Santa Barbara and beyond.