Wickliffe Covington | |
---|---|
Born | Mary Wickliffe Cooper July 2, 1867 Shelby County, Kentucky, US |
Died | December 1, 1938 Bowling Green, Kentucky, US |
Education | Art Students League of New York and Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer, William Merritt Chase |
Known for | Painting |
Wickliffe Cooper Covington (July 2, 1867 – December 1, 1938) was a 19th-century and early-20th-century American woman painter.
She was the daughter of Robert Wickliffe Cooper and Sarah Steele (Venable) Cooper,[1] but she never knew her father; he died a few weeks before she was born. Her father had been a Union Army cavalry officer during the Civil War.
She studied at Sayre Female Institute, the New England Conservatory of Music and the Art Students League of New York.[2] She also studied art with Ella Sophonisba Hergesheimer[2][3] — with whom she would remain a close friend[4] — James Carroll Beckwith, Kenyon Cox, William Merritt Chase and Wayman Elbridge Adams.[2][5]
Covington exhibited at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.[6]
She taught art at Potter College for Young Ladies in Bowling Green, Kentucky.[2] After that, she painted and taught art in a studio in a cabin that she renovated that was near her residence.[7]
Along with noted artists, such as William Merritt Chase and photographer Ansel Adams, Covington was an artist and resident of the Carmel art colony.[8] Her first recorded visit was during the spring and summer of 1911, when she exhibited "tooled leather" at the Annual of the Carmel Arts and Crafts Club.[9] She purchased a studio-home, continued as a regular seasonal resident with her husband, and exhibited on the Pacific coast with the Monterey County Fair, Santa Cruz Art League, and Carmel Art Association until 1937.[9] She also exhibited her art in the southern United States.[10]
Her painting Portrait of Clarence Underwood McElroy is in the Kentucky Museum collection of the Western Kentucky University.[10][11] About 1895 she made a portrait of Judge Robert William Wells (1795–1864) of Missouri.[7] In addition to the paintings that she made of notable Bowling Green residents, she also painted still lifes and flowers.[12] She made a poster Aunt Jane of Kentucky, which was used to promote Eliza Calvert Hall's daughter's teahouse business.[13]
Her works were exhibited in 2001 at the Kentucky Women Artists, 1850-1970 show at the Kentucky Library & Museum, Owensboro Museum of Art.[7]
On May 18, 1892, she married Robert Wells Covington,[14] who had his Bachelor of Law degree and then worked in farming.[15] They had four children, all born in Kentucky: son Euclid, daughter Margaret, daughter Wickliffe, and son Wells.[16] The Covingtons also had a home in Carmel, California.[10]
She died in Bowling Green on December 1, 1938.