Born in Toronto, Ontario, she studied with Miss S.S. Tull and with Wyly Grier in Toronto and summers at the William Chase School at Long Island, New Jersey; in Paris under Merson, Castelucho, and Caro-Delvaille; in Holland where she made a special study of interiors. When she returned to Canada she was elected a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1899 and an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy in 1904.
During the First World War she worked for the Red Cross in London, England, where her experiences of air-raids, general discomforts and semi-starvation seemed to have strengthened her character and her work. In 1919 she was back in Toronto where she kept records for the Art Gallery of Toronto. It was about this time that she began her flower studies. One of her large exhibitions took place at the T. Eaton Fine Art Galleries in the fall of 1928 when Hilda Ridley of the ‘Saturday Night’ noted the following, “The variety and extent of Miss Hagarety’s work – from her portraits and interiors to her pastels and flower studies – indicate her range of perceptions, her insight, imagination, and sensitiveness to colour and form. Quite unostentatious, she has always allowed her work to speak for itself, making no claims and suffering criticism without retaliation, – and speak her work does, awakening an immediate response in the hearts and minds of this who are sympathetically attuned.”
She exhibited at Eaton’s a number of times afterwards also at the Mellors Galleries, Toronto (1937) when Graham McInnes was favourably impressed with he work also. Clara Hagarty died in Toronto.
Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979
