Clifford Isaac Addams

Identity:

Clifford Isaac Addams was an etcher and figure painter. On 27 June 1900 he married Inez Eleanor Bate (fl. 1898-1927), also an artist. Their daughter, Dianne Addams, was born in 1901. They had three sons: James, Anthony and Martin. In 1922 they separated, but Inez would not divorce. Addams was briefly remarried to Lillian Curtis-Goode in 1932. He died in his studio in Greenwich Village in November 1942.

Life:

Addams enrolled at Philadelphia’s Drexel Institute of Technology, and began an apprenticship with an architect. He went on to study at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts and in 1899 won an $800 Cresson Traveling Scholarship. In Parsis, he began studying painting.

Addams was one of Whistler's apprentices, along with his wife Inez. He was the Massier and 'the only man who remained a faithful student' at the Académie Carmen until it was closed on Whistler's instructions on 6 April 1901. He had been apprenticed to Whistler early in May of that year.

He exhibited between 1901-1919 at the Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, the Goupil Gallery, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, and the New English Art Club.

He joined the Royal Navy in the first World War and was discharged in 1919. His health was badly affected by his experiences.

In 1921 he went to America, where the American Woolen Co. bought his etchings. In exhibitions there he won prizes including a medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, in 1915 and a gold medal at the Art Club of Philadelphia in 1922.

Bibliography:

Information from family descendant.

Annex Galleries.