| In The News |
|
Madison Museum of Fine Art, Inc.
PO Box 814/ 300 Hancock Street
Madison, GA 30650 mbechtell@prodigy.net |
| 706-485-4530 |
| |
|
Portrait of Historic Madison Personality Clementine Turnell Rece
Morgan County Citizen
Posted July 21, 2008
On Saturday June 21st, the Madison Museum of Fine Art hosted a Ray-Wood family reunion that celebrated the portrait of the well loved 19th century Madison personality and ancestor Clementine Turnell.
Twenty family members from Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida began their day with a stop at the Mallory Cemetery just north of Madison where Clementine’s sister Nancy Trammel Turnell and husband William Henry Harrison Butts are buried (see attached historic photos). Mallory Chapel which gives the site its name is now gone. Also buried there are Clementine’s parents George Turnell (1809-1881) and Martha Frances Sansom Turnell (1820-1904). The families then toured the Madison Museum of Fine Art where they viewed the museum’s art collection and the 1888 portrait of Clementine Turnell painted by Southern American portrait painter Poindexter Page Carter (1851-1921). (See family photo attached.)
As a young girl, Clementine Turnell 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 Madisonian newspaper recorded her lifelong generosity. Clementine’s portrait had previously been owned by Greensboro historian E.H. Armor and was returned to Madison from Athens in 2004. The artist is best known for painting portraits of prominent individuals in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia. He painted the posthumous portrait of Robert E. Lee that hangs in the Charleston South Carolina State House. Other works by the artist hang at Woford College and at the Smithsonian.
The Ray-Wood families next toured Heritage Hall (the home of Clementine’s brother Steven A Turnell and his wife Cora from 1891-1944). Later, when the house served as "Travelers' Inn," Benjamin Terrell Ray II and his wife Lillian briefly resided there. In 1923, their eldest son, Benjamin Terrell Ray III married Hallie Eleanor Wood, grand-niece of Steven Turnell. Following a visit to Ray and Turnell graves in Fairview Cemetery including Clementine's grave, the families attended Bethany Baptist Church on Sunday to commemorate the generosity of Hallie Eleanor Wood's great grandfather (Benjamin Harris 1805-1883) who gifted the land to found the church. Said Celeste Ray, Professor of Anthropology at Sewanee, “It was such a pleasure to visit these places together and to see Clementine Turnell whom we had only ever heard about. We are so grateful that the Museum is preserving her memory.”
Located at 290 Hancock Street on the courthouse square, the Madison Museum of Fine Art is a 501-c3 non profit institution that collects, preserves, interprets and imaginatively displays original works of art by historically significant visual art masters. For more information, call 706-485-4530.
Select a Press Release
Feb 13, 2010:
"From Dust to Dirt" Retrospective
Jan 22, 2010:
Alexander Z. Kruse Exhibition
Sep 18, 2008:
MMOFA Participates in Smithsonian Magazine’s Museum Day
Sep 14, 2008:
MMOFA Receives Gift of Early American Primitive Painting
Aug 28, 2008:
MMOFA Preserves a Piece of Stained Glass History
Jul 31, 2008:
“Out of the Sun” Film Festival Offers Retreat From the Heat
Jul 21, 2008:
Portrait of Historic Madison Personality Clementine Turnell Rece
Feb 20, 2008:
Dec 15, 2007:
MMFA receives Gift of Paintings
Jan 11, 2007:
"Night of the Three Kings" MORGAN COUNTY CITIZEN
|
|
