Skip to main content

Manon Cleary Paintings

American, 1942-2011

Manon Catherine Cleary was an American artist born in St. Louis, on November 14, 1942. Her father was a doctor and her identical twin sister, Shirley Cleary-Cooper, was an artist in Helena, Montana. She was a 1964 graduate of Washington University in her home town and for the rest of her life, was proud of having been a member of the Pi Phi sorority. After teaching at a junior high school near St. Louis, she studied in Italy and Spain and received a master of fine arts degree from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1968. Some of Cleary’s works are in the collections of museums, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, National Museum of Women in the Arts, the Brooklyn Museum and Chicago Art Institute. Cleary had a remarkable ability to draw and paint with photographic fidelity, but she was also known as a charismatic teacher at the University of the District of Columbia and as a free spirit whose exuberant life may have been her most enduring work of art. After being given a rat as a pet in the 1970s, she made rats a recurring subject of her art, often in large-scale paintings, with each hair shown in luminous detail. Once, when an art gallery replaced one of her self-portraits with a painting of a rat, the label Self-Portrait was left on the wall. “All of my work has been about self, even the rats. I do have a rat nose and rat hands”, she told Washingtonian magazine in 2005. Since the 1970s, Cleary had been at the center of a group of artists in Adams Morgan. She exhibited her meticulous artwork throughout the city and around the world, but she also became known for her striking presence, her colorful love life and the rats she kept as pets. After studying in Rome in her youth, she developed what she called an obsession with Caravaggio, an iconoclastic painter who lived from 1573–1610. She often copied paintings at the National Gallery of Art and in her work, blended Renaissance styles with a distinctly modern sensibility. Cleary’s Rape series from the late 1990s grew out of a sexual assault she suffered in 1996 while lecturing in Kazakhstan. Several of the black-and-white works show Cleary screaming, others are spattered with red paint and one contains nails driven into her face. As an artist, Cleary borrowed classical techniques from her deep study of Renaissance masters to create paintings and drawings memorable for their frank realism and sometimes disturbing themes. In addition to her many nude self-portraits, Cleary made erotically charged paintings of flowers. She took inspiration from a painful personal history in a series of works depicting the terror of rape and in later years, of not being able to breathe without mechanical assistance. Critics considered her a leading figurative artist of the photo-realist school, in which painters render their subjects with camera-like precision. Cleary occasionally won awards for photography when adjudicators didn’t realize her works were free-hand creations. “She was widely acknowledged to be among the best, if not the best, of the city’s figurative painters. There is a tension between the cool, clinical detachment of photography and painting’s warm idealization of the form”, Washington Post critic Michael O’Sullivan wrote in 2006. Cleary exhibited her art in galleries and museums from Moscow to Paris to Hickory, but Washington was her home for 42 years. In 1974, she settled in the decrepit Beverly Court apartments on Columbia Road, where a coterie of artists soon grew up around her. She painted her walls purple and her fourth-floor apartment, even with the pet rats, became something of a bohemian salon. “She was a star”, painter Judy Jashinsky told the Washington City Paper in 2004, “She was stunning, beautiful, long, brownish-black hair, real thin, wore little sundresses and sandals. She was just very cool and there was always a crowd around her”. Cleary had a long list of male admirers, including several whose confrontational attempts at performance art led to their arrests. She had a brief marriage in 1981 to a Danish artist known as Tommy, whom she divorced in less than a year. As a kind of graphic homage to her various lovers, Cleary made a series of intimately revealing portraits that were featured years later on the HBO program Real Sex. She met her second husband after a gallery opening in Baltimore. By way of introduction, Kijek, a dancer, stripped naked at a crowded party, walked up to Ms. Cleary and they were married in 2001. Despite her unconventional life, Cleary was more than a mere provocateur. After a day of teaching, she would return to her studio, with its windows painted over to block out sunlight and work late into the night, with a bottle of Dr. Pepper at her side. She took nude photographs of herself from every angle, then painstakingly created lifelike images that seemed alive with the warmth of human flesh. “If she saw talent, she would support it and promote it,” Washington art collector and gallery owner Fernando Batista said in an interview, “She tied together so many groups, older and younger. There are very few people like that”. Even with the pet rats, Cleary’s candle-lit apartment became known as a gathering place for an ever-changing group of Washington artists. “I keep the light levels low all the time, curtains were drawn except in the dining room, where the plants need sun and windows painted over in my studio and I entertain at night when dust doesn’t show”, she told The Post in 1998. Manon Catherine Cleary died on November 26, 2011, in Washington D.C.

to
1
2
1
1
1
1
Overall Height
to
Overall Width
to
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
2
917
652
649
615
2
2
2
2
Artist: Manon Cleary
Diptych Hand Painting
By Manon Cleary
Located in Washington, DC
Exceptional pair of paintings by Washington DC artist Manon Cleary (1942-1911). Paintings are oil on canvas. Dated 1980 and signed in the front lo...
Category

1980s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Manon Cleary "Rat"
By Manon Cleary
Located in Washington, DC
Photorealist oil painting of rat by Washington D.C. artist Manon Cleary (1942-2011). Painting is signed on reverse "Cleary". Painting is stretched on aluminum stretcher and dates to the 1990s. Manon Cleary had a remarkable ability to draw and paint with photographic fidelity, but she was also known as a charismatic teacher at the University of the District of Columbia and as a free spirit whose exuberant life may have been her most enduring work of art. Since the 1970s, Ms. Cleary — whose first name is pronounced “muh-NAHN” — had been at the center of a group of artists in Adams Morgan. She exhibited her meticulous artwork throughout the city and around the world, but she also became known for her striking presence, her colorful love life and the rats she kept as pets. As an artist, Ms. Cleary borrowed classical techniques from her deep study of Renaissance masters to create paintings and drawings memorable for their frank realism and sometimes disturbing themes. In addition to her many nude self-portraits, Ms. Cleary made erotically charged paintings of flowers. She took inspiration from a painful personal history in a series of works depicting the terror of rape and, in later years, of not being able to breathe without mechanical assistance. Critics considered her a leading figurative artist of the photo-realist school, in which painters render their subjects with camera-like precision. In fact, Ms. Cleary occasionally won awards for photography when adjudicators didn’t realize her works were free-hand creations. She was “widely acknowledged to be among the best, if not the best, of the city’s figurative painters,” Washington Post critic Michael O’Sullivan wrote in 2006. “There is a tension between the cool, clinical detachment of photography and painting’s warm idealization of form.” Ms. Cleary exhibited her art in galleries and museums from Moscow to Paris to Hickory, N.C., but Washington was her home for the past 42 years. In 1974, she settled in the decrepit Beverly Court apartments on Columbia Road NW, where a coterie of artists soon grew up around her. She painted her walls purple, and her fourth-floor apartment — even with the pet rats — became something of a bohemian salon. “She was a star,” painter Judy Jashinsky told the Washington City Paper in 2004. “She was stunning, beautiful; long, brownish–black hair; real thin; wore . . . little sundresses and sandals. She was just very cool, and there was always a crowd around her.” Ms. Cleary had a long list of male admirers, including several whose confrontational attempts at “performance art” led to their arrests. She had a brief marriage in 1981 to a Danish artist known as Tommy — “just Tommy,” Ms. Cleary said — whom she divorced in less than a year. As a kind of graphic homage to her various lovers, Ms. Cleary made a series of intimately revealing portraits that were featured years later on the HBO program “Real Sex.” She met her second husband after a gallery opening in Baltimore. By way of introduction, Kijek, a dancer, stripped naked at a crowded party, walked up to Ms. Cleary and said, “Wouldn’t you like me to pose for you?” They were married in 2001. In spite of her unconventional life, Ms. Cleary was more than a mere provocateur. After a day of teaching at UDC, she would return to her studio, with its windows painted over to block out sunlight, and work late into the night, with a bottle of Dr Pepper at her side. She took nude photographs of herself from every angle, then painstakingly created lifelike images that seemed alive with the warmth of human flesh. After studying in Rome in her youth, she developed what she called “an obsession” with Caravaggio, an iconoclastic painter who lived from 1573 to 1610. She often copied paintings at the National Gallery of Art and, in her own work, blended Renaissance styles with a distinctly modern sensibility. Ms. Cleary’s “Rape” series from the late 1990s grew out of a sexual assault she suffered in 1996 while lecturing in Kazakhstan. Several of the black-and-white works show Ms. Cleary screaming; others are spattered with red paint, and one contains nails driven into her face. Manon Catherine Cleary was born Nov. 14, 1942, in St. Louis. Her father was a doctor, and her identical twin sister, Shirley Cleary-Cooper, is an artist in Helena, Mont. She was a 1964 graduate of Washington University in her home town and, for the rest of her life, was proud of having been a member of the Pi Phi...
Category

1990s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Related Items
Still life with Pears- original realism still life painting-contemporary Art
Located in London, Chelsea
"Pears" is a captivating masterpiece that pays homage to the intrinsic beauty and timeless allure of this delectable fruit. Executed with meticulous precision and infused with the sp...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

La Vie Est Belle. 2023, oil on canvas, 80x70 cm
Located in Riga, LV
La Vie Est Belle. 2023, oil on canvas, 80x70 cm Works of Liene Liepina are full of life and joy because of photography-like, realistic details on the one hand, and intense and slight...
Category

2010s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Touching Souls - Hyperrealist Floral Still Life Oil Painting
By Katharina Husslein
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Inspired by paintings created by old masters and the immersive nature she experienced in the Black Forest, German artist Katharina Husslein paints in a representational hyperrealisti...
Category

2010s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

By That Magic Thread That Cannot Be Untied - Floral Still Life Oil Painting
By Katharina Husslein
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Inspired by paintings created by old masters and the immersive nature she experienced in the Black Forest, German artist Katharina Husslein paints in a representational hyperrealisti...
Category

2010s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Palm Trees Rising - Vibrant Textural Landscape Oil Painting
By Katharina Husslein
Located in Los Angeles, CA
With a contemporary perspective on landscape painting and inspired by paintings created by old masters, German artist Katharina Husslein paints in a representational manner to captur...
Category

2010s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tiffany Stained Glass - Original Book Art on Canvas
By Carl Smith
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Carl Smith is an American artist who has been living in Berlin, Germany, since 2001. He works with a combination of silkscreen printing, collage, and painting to create his urban ins...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Linen, Canvas, Acrylic, Screen

I Have Only My Dreams - Hyperrealist Botanical Floral Still Life Oil Painting
By Katharina Husslein
Located in Los Angeles, CA
With a contemporary perspective on landscape painting and inspired by paintings created by old masters, German artist Katharina Husslein paints in a representational manner to captur...
Category

2010s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Florence -original still life painting-original realism still life oil painting
Located in London, Chelsea
"Florence," a captivating Impressionistic masterpiece by the talented artist Irina Trushkova, beautifully captures the essence of one of the world's most enchanting cities. Rendered ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Time To Grow - Hyperrealist Botanical Flower Still Life Oil Painting
By Katharina Husslein
Located in Los Angeles, CA
With a contemporary perspective on landscape painting and inspired by paintings created by old masters, German artist Katharina Husslein paints in a representational manner to captur...
Category

2010s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Saint Bernard
By Stuart Dunkel
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Stuart Dunkel is an artist, a musician and an author. He has studied music at Boston University, Mannes College of Music, the Juilliard School (Doctorate), and art at the Boston Mus...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"The Last, " Oil Painting
Located in Denver, CO
Victoria Novak's "The Last" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a still life of tangerines or mandarin oranges peeled and unpeeled with l...
Category

2010s Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Seahorse and Puppy
By Stuart Dunkel
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Stuart Dunkel has spent decades refining his hyper-realistic style. He paints realistic imagery based on real-world inspirations. His paintings show that everyday objects can be fasc...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Photorealist Manon Cleary Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Manon Cleary paintings for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Manon Cleary paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by Manon Cleary in canvas, fabric, oil paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Photorealist style. Not every interior allows for large Manon Cleary paintings, so small editions measuring 8 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Lindsey Kustusch, Frank DePietro, and Stuart Dunkel. Manon Cleary paintings prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,950 and tops out at $5,500, while the average work can sell for $3,725.

Recently Viewed

View All