A Museum of Fine Art in Madison, Georgia

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AUDIO 11: P. P. Carter (Poindexter Page Carter)

The 2008 Turnell Family Reunion visit to the Madison Museum of Fine Art to view the 1888 oil portrait of Clementine Turnell by Southern portrait painter P.P. Carter. Poindexter Paige Carter American, (1851-1921) “Portrait of Clementine Turnell”, 1888 Oil on Canvas, signed and dated on verso Born in Richmond, Virginia on September 2, 1851, Poindexter Page Carter, son of James Monroe Carter, painted portraits of prominent Southern personalities including the posthumous portrait of Robert E. Lee dated 1890 that hangs in the Charleston City Hall. Carter was active in the Richmond area from 1873-1900. He married Corinna Hendee King of Greensboro, Georgia, whose father Dr. H. H. King rebuilt the Greensboro First Presbyterian Church in 1873 after it burned in 1869. With Corinna, Carter fathered three daughters who never married. And around 1900, the artist lived for some time in the King home in Greensboro. Corinna died in 1917 in Atlanta. And in 1918 Carter moved to Asheville, North Carolina, presumably for the benefit of his youngest daughter Virginia who suffered from T.B.. Following his death on May 6, 1921, his body was transported to Greensboro where he is buried in the King family plot with Corinna and Virginia who died in 1933 from pneumonia related to T.B. The sitter in this portrait is Clementine Turnell, who lived in a stately antebellum mansion in Madison, Georgia, the town spared by Sherman’s troops during the Civil War due to its beauty and refined culture. In 2008, Turnell relatives visited the portrait during a family reunion. As a young girl, Clementine turned many a head. And when Clementine’s finance was killed in the Civil War, she pledged to never marry, remaining single until she died. At the time of her death, the local paper recorded Clementine’s lifelong generosity including her commitment to raise her niece Bessie, her brother Steven’s daughter after his wife died shortly after childbirth. From 1891-1944, Steven Turnell lived in what is now the historic house museum called Heritage Hall. Clementine’s parents and sister are buried north of Madison in nearby Mallory Cemetery. And Clementine is buried in the historic Madison Cemetery. The artist is listed in Who Was Who 1564-1975 by Peter Hastings Falk. Provenance: Greensboro town historian E.H. Armor Works by this artist are held in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Georgia Capitol Museum, City Collection of Charleston, South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, Sandor Teszler Library in Spartanburg, and Woford College

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