A landscape painter much influenced by the French Impressionists, Alson Clark moved to Southern California in 1920 and became recognized for his landscape depictions, especially snowscenes.

He was born in Chicago and began art study as a child with Saturday classes at the Art Institute. He later enrolled there for six months from 1895 to 1896 and in 1898, went to Paris where he was a student for several months at the Academie Carmen, whose director was James McNeill Whistler. He also painted in Holland, Belgium, and the French countryside and then returned to Paris to study at the Academie Delecluse with Alphonse Mucha. In 1901, he exhibited "The Violinist" at the Paris Salon.

In 1902, he returned to the United States and opened a studio in Watertown, New York. Shortly after he returned to Paris with his wife Medora, and they divided their time between France and the United States until the beginning of World War I.