Mayna Treanor Avent (1868 — 1959) was an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

Early life

Mayna Treanor Avent was born on September 17, 1868, in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the List of muni ...

.Tennessee Portrait Project
/ref>''The South on Paper: Line, Color and Light'', Columbia, South Carolina: University of South Carolina Press, 2000, p. 2

/ref>Lynn Barstis Williams, ''Imprinting the South: Southern Printmakers And Their Images of the Region, 1920s-1940s'', Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2007, p. 4

/ref> Her father was Thomas O. Treanor and her mother, Mary Andrews Treanor. She grew up at

Tulip Grove Tulip Grove is an antebellum house built in 1836 for Andrew Jackson Donelson, who was the nephew of Andrew Jackson. The site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970. History While Andrew Jackson was still President in 1834, ...

, an antebellum mansion opposite

Andrew Jackson Andrew Jackson (March 15, 1767 – June 8, 1845) was an American lawyer, planter, general, and statesman who served as the seventh president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, he gained fame as ...

's The Hermitage. She studied painting at the

Cincinnati Art Academy The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

and at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

for two years.

Career

Avent taught painting in Nashville, and exhibited her oil and watercolour paintings in Massachusetts,

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

and Tennessee. She often painted in what is now known as the Mayna Treanor Avent Studio on the Jake's Creek Trail in the

Great Smoky Mountains National Park Great Smoky Mountains National Park is an American national park in the southeastern United States, with parts in North Carolina and Tennessee. The park straddles the ridgeline of the Great Smoky Mountains, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains, whi ...

near

Elkmont, Tennessee Elkmont is a region situated in the upper Little River Valley of the Great Smoky Mountains of Sevier County, in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Throughout its history, the valley has been home to a pioneer Appalachian community, a logging town, and ...

.F. Carroll McMahan, ''Elkmont's Uncle Lem Ownby: Sage of the Smokies'', The History Press, 2013, p. 5

/ref> Avent was a member of the Nashville Studio Club, the Nashville Artists Guild, and the Centennial Club.

Personal life and Death

In 1891, she married Frank Avent, a lawyer for the State Railroad Commissioner from

Murfreesboro, Tennessee Murfreesboro is a city in and county seat of Rutherford County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 152,769 according to the 2020 census, up from 108,755 residents certified in 2010. Murfreesboro is located in the Nashville metropol ...

. They had a son, James Avent (1895–1995). Avent spent her last three years with her son in

Sewanee, Tennessee Sewanee () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Franklin County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 2,535 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Tullahoma, Tennessee Micropolitan Statistical Area. Sewanee is best known as the home of ...

. She died on January 2, 1959.

External links

Information archive about the Cabin Studio and the Artist

References

1868 births 1959 deaths Artists from Nashville, Tennessee Académie Julian alumni 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters American expatriates in France {{US-painter-1860s-stub