Mary Gine Riley (April 22, 1883 - February 1, 1939) was an American painter. Her middle name is sometimes given as Grimes. Riley was born in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, the daughter of

Charles Valentine Riley Charles Valentine Riley (18 September 1843 – 14 September 1895) was a British-born American entomologist and artist. He was one of the first individuals to use biological pest control and authored over 2,400 publications. He convinced Congress ...

and Emilie Conzelman Riley, and spent most of her life in that city. A 1904 graduate of Wellesley College, she studied art at the

Corcoran School of Art The Corcoran School of the Arts and Design (known as the Corcoran School or CSAD) is the professional art school of the George Washington University, in Washington, DC.Peggy McGloneUniversity names first director of Corcoran School of the Arts and ...

from 1907 to 1908, from 1910 to 1911, and in 1913; she also studied in New York with

L. Birge Harrison Lovell Birge Harrison (October 28, 1854, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 1929) was an American genre and landscape painter, teacher, and writer. He was a prominent practitioner and advocate of Tonalism. Life Born in Philadelphia, Birge Harrison w ...

and Henry Bayley Snell. In 1911 she first exhibited work with the

Society of Washington Artists The Society of Washington Artists was established in 1890 in Washington, D.C. The Society was organized by the ''Art Students League of Washington''. The Society's first exhibit was in 1891, held at the Woodward & Lothrop building. Within a few ...

, on whose governing board she would serve for a number of years and whose vice-president she became in 1930. She was also a charter member of the

Arts Club of Washington The Arts Club of Washington is a private club to promote the Arts in Washington, D.C. Founded by Bertha Noyes in May 1916, its first president was Henry Kirke Bush-Brown; Mathilde Mueden Leisenring was among its original members, as were Sus ...

, at which she also exhibited. Riley showed work at the Corcoran Biennial from 1919 until 1926; her paintings also appeared in exhibitions at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appa ...

, the

Maryland Institute The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) is a private art and design college in Baltimore, Maryland. It was founded in 1826 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, making it one of the oldest art colleges in the ...

, the

American Watercolor Society The American Watercolor Society, founded in 1866, is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. Qualifications AWS judges the work of a painter before granting admission to the soc ...

, the National Art Club, and the

National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors The National Association of Women Artists, Inc. (NAWA) is a United States organization, founded in 1889 to gain recognition for professional women fine artists in an era when that field was strongly male-oriented. It sponsors exhibitions, awards ...

, as well as in the Greater Washington Independent Exhibition of 1935. In 1928 she received an award from the National Art Club; in 1930 she received one from the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. Riley traveled widely during her career, finding inspiration in the

American Southwest The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado ...

and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, the source for the subject matter of some of her few surviving works. Riley died in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Glenwood Cemetery there with other members of her family. One of her paintings, ''Rainy Day, Guatemala'', was formerly in the collection of the

Corcoran Gallery of Art The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, that is now the location of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. Overview The Corcoran School of the Arts & Design ...

References

1883 births 1939 deaths American women painters 20th-century American painters 20th-century American women artists American watercolorists Women watercolorists Painters from Washington, D.C. Wellesley College alumni Corcoran School of the Arts and Design alumni American people of English descent American people of Danish descent American people of German descent Burials at Glenwood Cemetery (Washington, D.C.) {{US-painter-1880s-stub