Glen Cove's multi-talented Clarissa Watson dies in France

Author, Art Consultant and Gallery Director, Clarissa Watson, of Glen Cove, Sassetot le Mauconduit, France, and formerly of Upper Brookville, died on March 17, 2012 in Saint-Cloud, France, just three weeks short of her ninety fourth birthday.

According to her daughter Robin Watson Picarle, “Chris,” as she was called, “still had crime on her mind and was gathering ideas for the new book she was writing” at the time of her death.

Of Clarissa Watson’s first book, The Fourth Stage of Gainsborough Brown, critic Judith Crist stated, “The protagonist is my kind of female: a grown up gal with brains, charm, and attractive foibles – a flesh and blood sleuth who’s coincidentally a lady.” And, Robin wrote, “Clarissa Watson fit the description perfectly.”

“Most everyone on the North Shore of Long Island interested in fine paintings and sculpture knew of her. She brought art to Long Island in 1953 when, with co-owner Mrs. Joan Payson, deceased former owner of the New York Mets baseball team, she founded The Country Art Gallery and The Country Art School (1953-63) in Westbury.

“She organized wide ranging exhibitions that were international in scope and was the first to exhibit many prominent American and European artists, exhibits she organized through her Art Enterprises International by which she represented over a hundred artists.

The artistic styles she exhibited ranged from folk to abstract and included works by Jamie Wyeth, Ralph and Martha Cahoon, Wayne Davis, Jack Frankfuter, Rhoda Sherbell, George Gach, Henry Koehler, and Ray Johnson.

“Clarissa’s enchanting, colorful and high-relief personality, and her guest list,” Mrs. Picarle wrote, “helped make the Gallery openings an exciting community event where one might meet such fascinating personalities as Princess Grace Kelly of Monaco, the actor Walter Matthau, Françoise Gilot, French painter, bestselling author of Life With Picasso and mother of Paloma Picasso, or Jonas Salk.

“Edwina Snow, her dear, dear friend and one of [the Oyster Bay Guardian’s] past owners, covered many of the openings of The Country Art Gallery.

Some of the people she knew socially or who attended her lively after-opening dinners give an idea of life during the unique era of the 50s and 60s in New York and on Long Island: Dorothy Hearst Paley Hirshon, Tex and Jinx McCrary, Diana Vreeland, CZ and Winston Guest, Jock Whitney, Babe Paley, Bill Paley, Sonny Whitney, Al Vanderbilt, Horst, Molly Phipps, Anita Loos, and Madeleine Albright.

As a passionate spokesperson for the arts, Chris played an instrumental role in the founding of the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn, where she had served on the Board of Trustees.

She was a former Art Consultant to Adelphi University and had served on the Board of Trustees of the Hechsher Museum, was a past Director of the Matinecock Neighborhood Association, Film Festivals, 7-Village Arts Council, and past Director-Producer of the Locust Valley Medieval Christmas Festivals.

Known by many on Long Island as the doyenne of art, she was also a well-known art mystery author. Her novels, including The Fourth Stage of Gainsborough Brown, The Bishop in the Back Seat, Runaway, The Last Plane from Nice, and Somebody Killed the Messenger, have been published in both hard cover and paperback in the United States and abroad.

Mrs. Watson wrote numerous articles for newspapers and magazines and had been seen on TV in the US and in France.

She was the Cultural Deputy for the United States of the Association for Economic Expansion and Tourism of the Canton de Valmont in Normandy and was the International Chairman for “Normandy Remembered, Salon de Normandie,” which she organized in Locust Valley. The event featured 50 Norman painters who honored the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

She held memberships in Mystery Writers of America, The Authors Guild, The National Society of Arts & Letters and the Seawanhaka Corinthian Yacht Club.

Chris Watson was the wife of the late Edward Louis Watson, mother of the late Alden Wentworth Watson and is survived by her daughter, Robin Watson Picarle (Mrs. Jacques C. Picarle) of Glen Cove, New York, Garches, France and Sassetot le Mauconduit (Normandy), France.

A private service will be held in Ashland, Wisconsin. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the charity of one’s choice, or in her name to Saint John’s of Lattingtown Episcopal Church, Lattingtown Road, Locust Valley, New York 11560.

The Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center of Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, will be the repository of a Clarissa Watson Collection of her manuscripts, papers, and correspondence files. The Twentieth Century Archives collection at the university has become one of the leading centers for contemporary research for scholars in the fields of literature, the arts, and public affairs.