The Cliff
36x42 oil/canvas 1929

Clunie by Cornelus Botke

In 1930, Clunie's painting, "The Cliff" was stolen from a show at Stendahl Gallery. At the time, Clunie considered it his best work. The only known photograph of the painting was taken by the Los Angeles Times for an article that ran November 14, 1929.

Clunie died in 1984, never knowing what happened to "The Cliff." Fifteen years later, in 1999, the painting was brought to Coons Gallery for an appraisal.

It is now on permanent display at the gallery.

Artist Robert Clunie built what is now Coons Gallery in 1945 on a piece of property he bought from a local rancher. Every summer, for more than 40 years, Robert Clunie lived in a tent beneath California’s North Palisades Glacier, 11,000 feet above sea level.

"In all weathers, he painted the majesty of the wilderness: snow-capped granite peaks, emerald-colored lakes, high pine forests with sun-filled skies or violent mountain storms, and radiant sunsets.

This was a most incredible feat, made possible by Clunie’s passion for the Sierra. He thrived on her harsh environment and captured it en plein-air, while others, being limited by it, made only token examples back in their studios. No man knew this subject better than Robert Clunie. The same determination was unmistakable at the early age of 15, when he was banned from his home because of rebellious acts toward his native Scotland’s rigid class distinctions. He knew his options—“this country is unjust; I want to go to America.”

After spending seven years in Michigan and New York City, he traveled west, arriving in California in 1918 with a well-established art career; he found it to be a painter’s paradise. Clunie was blessed with superb drawing abilities that gave his work a distinct, finished look; his paintings showed remarkable balance of design with strong values, bringing them alive with light.

In following his artistic star, Clunie’s life took many unpredictable turns during the next 66 years in California. His career was well documented by a 35-year exhibition record in the Los Angeles museum shows until 1950, when petty artistic rivalries caused him to turn his back on the art world. As a result of his wanting to spend his last 30 years painting in the quiet atmosphere of his Owens valley home, Robert Clunie’s name since that time has been virtually unknown." —Richard Coons

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ROBERT CLUNIE PLEIN-AIR PAINTER OF THE SIERRA
289 pages 93 color plates 317 total 10 x11 cloth bound $85, Now $55

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