Marjory J. Sente
Called a woman of great talent and tremendous sense of humor, Claire (also spelled Clara) Dooner was born on January 31, 1887, into a wealthy Los Angeles family.
Before making a fortune in real estate, her father, Pierton William Dooner, was a pioneer journalist and newspaper editor in Arizona. Along with John H. Marion and Benjamin H. Weaver, he owned The Arizona Miner and The Weekly Arizona Miner in 1871 and 1872. Selling his share of the newspaper, Dooner moved to California and was admitted to its bar.
Claire developed her artistic talents at Stanford University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1908. She was a charter member of the University’s Delta, Delta, Delta Sorority. Graduate work at Columbia University while studying with Arthur Wesley Dow followed, as well as classes at UC-Berkeley and traveling throughout Europe to study art.
Claire co-founded the Laguna Beach Arts League in 1918. For several years, she taught art at Hollywood High School before moving to Prescott in 1922 after her mother’s passing the prior year.
Her early days in Prescott included painting and giving art lessons. In 1923 Ada Eldred Rigden took oil painting and palette knife technique from Claire. Ranchers from Kirkland, the Rigdens, were living in Prescott that winter so their children could attend school.
Claire married Kevin R. Phillips, an accountant for Sam Hill Hardware, in 1927. A fine metal artist, Phillips made ornate frames for his wife’s paintings.
Well known in Southwestern art circles for her oils and etchings of Northern Arizona landscapes, Claire’s favorite subject was Thumb Butte. A window in the Phillips’ home at 416 Perry Street framed the formation. She claimed much of her work was inspired by views from her studio.
In the 1940s and 1950s, her artistic interests expanded to include etchings. Teaching herself the technique, she became highly proficient, and many Prescott couples received an etching of a local landmark as a wedding gift. They also were popular gifts for visiting dignitaries.
In 1937 she was included in the second edition of American Women and, 22 years later, was listed in the first edition of Who’s Who of American Women. In 1950 the Prescott Public Library hosted an exhibition of Claire’s Arizona landscapes, referring to her as Prescott’s leading landscape artist.
One of Claire’s most enduring contributions to the Prescott art community was founding, along with Mabel Lawrence, George Phippen and Dr. Florence Yount, the Prescott Art League, now the Mountain Artists Guild, on October 28, 1949.
A charter member of the General Crook DAR Chapter, she served as chapter historian (1930-1931) and regent (1937-1939). She also was a member of the Prescott American Association of University Women (AAUW), the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO), Eastern Star, the Monday Club and the First Congregational Church.
Claire died as the result of a massive heart attack on April 2, 1960, and is interred at Mountain View Cemetery. With Kevin’s passing in 1962, bequests in Claire’s memory were given to the Stanford University YWCA and Prescott College to build the Clara Dooner Phillips Memorial Fine Arts Center. It is now the Phillips Auditorium in Embry-Riddle’s Davis Learning Center.
Her landscapes, however, have lived on. In 1998 the Phippen Museum’s “Pioneer Women: Arizona History Through Art” exhibition featured her work and that of Kate Thomson Cory, Ada Rigden, Mabel Lloyd Lawrence and Lillian Willhelm Smith. The Museum of Northern Arizona’s 2012-13 exhibition of “Arizona’s Pioneering Women Artists–Impressions of the Grand Canyon State” included ten of her pieces. Phillips was one of ten women featured in the Arizona Centennial Legacy Project. Her work is also in the collection of the Arizona History Museum.
“Days Past” is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners International (www.prescottcorral.org). This and other Days Past articles are also available at www.archives.sharlothallmuseum.org/articles/days-past-articles/1. The public is encouraged to submit proposed articles and inquiries to dayspast@sharlothallmuseum.org Please contact SHM Research Center reference desk at 928-277-2003, or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information or assistance with photo requests.