This biography from the Archives of AskART:
| Known as a specialist in fruit and flower still-life paintings, Phoebe T. Clements - as she signed her name until her marriage in 1873 to G. Major Taber - was born in Millbrook, New York on May 15, 1834. Her initial art studies were at the Cooper Union in New York City then later at the Academy Julian in Paris. (It is interesting to note that, although her dates of study in Paris are not shown, she is listed under her married name of Taber.) Previous to her marriage to Taber, she was married in 1857 to Professor C. P. Clements.
The artist lived from about 1871 until 1886 in Detroit, Michigan before moving to Grand Rapids, Michigan - a city on the other side of the state. Prior to her move, and even until 1889, she had an extensive exhibition record in Detroit. The couple finally settled in Los Angeles, California in 1904. She died there in 1916.
Written and submitted October 2004 by Edward Bentley, art collector and researcher from Lansing, Michigan.
Sources:
Edan Hughes, Artists in California, 1786-1940
Peter Hastings Falk (editor), Who Was Who in American Art
Added note:
A Family tree on Ancestry.com gives her husband's name as George Major Taber. She is listed as Phoebe T. Clements in the 1872-73 Detroit city directory. She is sharing a studio at 87 Griswold with J. Kirkbride Trego. In the 1874-75 Directory she is Mrs. Taber. She and her husband are not listed in the next directory.
In the 1880 census they are living in Ionia Michigan, where George had lived before ( his children were born there). He is running an agricultural store, she is listed as artist. In 1900 Phoebe and her son - not George- are listed in Grand Rapids. While its possible they might have come back to Detroit at some point - she is not listed as an exhibitor in the big Art Loan of 1883.
Information provided by Patience Nauta, retired registrar of the Detroit Historical Museum.
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