Gabrielle de Veaux Clements

1858 - 1948

Gabrielle de Veaux Clements was born in Philadelphia, and spent time studying at both the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts as well as the Académie Julian in Paris. Visiting Cape Ann in the 1880s as a student of etcher Stephen Parrish, Clements met and befriended fellow artist Ellen Day Hale who was then studying under William Morris Hunt and Helen Knowlton. The pair soon became close friends, and eventually both women established permanent summer residences in the neighborhood of Folly Cove. 

In his memoir, A Sculptor’s Fortunes, Walker Hancock  (who lived in Lanesville from the early 1930s through the end of his life) talks about Hale and Clements, and their roles in establishing Folly Cove as a gathering spot for artists:

Folly Cove…had begun to attract artists at least two generations before I arrived. The first to settle there were Ellen Day Hale and Gabrielle deV. Clements….Their houses were close to each other, overlooking the cove. Miss Clements’ was a large frame structure not far back from the road. Miss Hale’s, a stone building, was on higher ground. Miss Clements had been a mural painter, but because of her age she at that juncture limited her work to etching. She was kind and patient enough to give me lessons in that art. Miss Hale continued with her portrait painting. Both ladies were very much a part of the local community…They were responsible for [sculptor] Charles Grafly’s buying a house and building a large studio nearby, having recommended “the Folly” to him as a healthful place in which to live.