Ms. Hoffmann was born in Murfreesboro, North Carolina in 1862 and her death date is unknown. Her first formal education was at the Cincinnati Art Academy, during the years of 1885 - 1897, where she won three home scholarships for $100.00 each. She exhibited at the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897. Her two paintings:# 230 "Picking Poppies" and # 231 "Tune of Napoleon" , received high acclaim. She also exhibited and was a member of the Cincinnati Women's Art Club, which held annual exhibitions in Cincinnati from 1893 on at Closson's Gallery, one of the city's leading commercial establishments, and later at the Art Museum. The level of professional creativity displayed at the Women's Art Club in Cincinnati was rarely achieved elsewhere in the country. While at the Cincinnati Art Academy she studied with Frank Duveneck (1848 - 1919) and with Vincent Nowottny (1854-1908). Several of Duveneck's most talented pupils were women, including Kate Reno Miller (1874-1929), Clara Hoffmann, Caroline Lord (1860-1928), Mary Spencer(1858-1935) and Dixie Selden (1871-1936). It was during these studies that she met her best friend Emma Mendenhall (1873, Cincinnati). Emma and Clara journeyed to study during their summers with Rhoda Carlton Marian Nicholls (1854-1930) at William M. Chases (1849-1916) Shinnecock summer school in New York. Clara Hoffmann and Emma Mendenhall went to Paris.

Biography courtesy of Roughton Galleries, www.antiquesandfineart.com/roughton