Clare Cronenwett, engraver, painter, etcher, illustrator and teacher, was born Clara Margaret Cronenwett in Monrovia, California to Albert and Minnie Cronenwett on January 26, 1890. The Cronenwetts moved from Ohio to Monrovia, California in 1888. Clare's father became an important civic leader and established the Monrovia News in 1903 and was owner and editor of the Arcadia Bulletin. In 1904, he was president of the Monrovia board of trade and ran for public office. In 1906 he sold the Monrovia News to the Monrovia Publishing Company. The Cronenwett family owned La Vista Grande Hotel in Monrovia, which was one of the finest hotels in the San Gabriel Valley. Clare eventually established her studio, called the Little Gallery, at her family’s hotel.

On June 13, 1910, Elizabeth Waggoner wrote an article for the Los Angeles Herald on the annual exhibition of works by students at the College of Fine Arts of the University of Southern California and Clare Cronenwett was noted as an undergraduate whose “work promises fine things for the future.” On December 10, 1910, the San Francisco Call noted that Clara Cronenwett was one of the students who escaped the fire that the destroyed the College of Fine Arts building at the university. Clara is listed in the 1910/1911 Yearbook for the University of Southern California as being on the facility of the College of Fine Arts as a watercolor instructor. Her address was listed as Monrovia. There is a record of her residing at 641 O'Farrell Street in San Francisco but the exact dates were not given.

As an illustrator, Cronenwett illustrated the book Suffragette Primer or A Wink to the Wise written by Mary Richard Gray and published in 1911. She was a member of and exhibited with the Printmakers Society of Los Angeles, Painters and Sculptors of Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Art Association. Her work is represented in the Oakland Museum of California.

Clare Cronenwett died at the family home on Gold Hill in Monrovia, California on December 25, 1969.