Elizabeth O'Neill Verner (December 21, 1883 – April 17, 1979) was an artist, author, lecturer, and preservationist who was one of the leaders of the

Charleston Renaissance The Charleston Renaissance is a period between World Wars I and II in which the city of Charleston, South Carolina, experienced a boom in the arts as artists, writers, architects, and historical preservationists came together to improve and repre ...

. She has been called "the best-known woman artist of South Carolina of the twentieth century."

Early life and education

Elizabeth Quale O'Neill was born Dec. 21, 1883, in Charleston, South Carolina. She first studied art with

Alice Ravenel Huger Smith Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (July 14, 1876 – February 3, 1958) was an American painter and printmaker. She was one of the leading figures in the so-called Charleston Renaissance, along with Elizabeth O'Neill Verner, Alfred Hutty, and Anna Heyward ...

. In 1901, after attending a Catholic girls’ school in Columbia, S.C., she enrolled at the

Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Mar ...

, where she studied for two years with

Thomas Anshutz Thomas Pollock Anshutz (October 5, 1851 – June 16, 1912) was an American painter and teacher. Known for his portraiture and genre scenes, Anshutz was a co-founder of The Darby School. One of Thomas Eakins's most prominent students, he succeede ...

. When she left the academy, she taught art in Aiken, South Carolina, for a time. She then returned to Charleston, where she took up her art studies with Smith as well as with Gabrielle D. Clements and

Ellen Day Hale Ellen Day Hale (February 11, 1855February 11, 1940) was an American Impressionist painter and printmaker from Boston. She studied art in Paris and during her adult life lived in Paris, London and Boston. She exhibited at the Paris Salon and the Ro ...

. Inspired by Clements and Hale, she was a founding member of the Charleston Etchers Club and helped to found the Southern States Art League. In 1907, she married E. Pettigrew Verner, with whom she had two children.

Art career

Verner did not become a professional artist until after her husband's death in 1925 left her the sole means of support for her children. With advice from Smith, she worked to adapt her craft so that she could be self-supporting. One avenue she took, like some of her contemporaries, was to publish her prints in books with titles like ''Prints and Impressions of Charleston'' that could be sold to tourists. Another avenue was to seek commissions, and she came to specialize in making drawings of historic buildings in the cause of preservation. Among her clients were Williamsburg Historic District, Harvard Medical School, the United States Military Academy, Princeton University, and the University of South Carolina. Verner made etchings,

drypoint Drypoint is a printmaking technique of the intaglio family, in which an image is incised into a plate (or "matrix") with a hard-pointed "needle" of sharp metal or diamond point. In principle, the method is practically identical to engraving. The ...

s, drawings, and (after 1934)

pastel A pastel () is an art medium in a variety of forms including a stick, a square a pebble or a pan of color; though other forms are possible; they consist of powdered pigment and a binder. The pigments used in pastels are similar to those us ...

s of Charleston, favoring buildings, street scenes, and landscapes. She worked at a studio within her residence at 38 Tradd Street. She also became a portraitist known for representing African-Americans, especially the city's flower vendors. She worked occasionally as a book illustrator, illustrating DuBose Heyward's novel ''Porgy''. Stylistically, her paintings are realism with impressionist overtones, while her etchings and drawings are crisply detailed studies. Verner traveled extensively, visiting Japan (1937), Europe, the Caribbean, and Mexico. In London, she examined some of Rembrandt's etchings in the British Museum. While in Kyoto, Japan in 1937, she learned Japanese brushwork, and produced about 12 etchings. She inspired her friend

Anne Taylor Nash Anne Taylor Nash (1884–1968) was an American painter, largely of portraits. Born Anne Mauger Taylor in Pittsboro, North Carolina, Nash did not begin painting until she was forty, being inspired to do so by her friend Elizabeth O'Neill Verner. S ...

to take up painting, serving as her teacher for a time. In 1946, Verner published “Other Places,” which made up 42 illustrations of places other than Charleston, accompanied by her own commentary. She died on April 17, 1979. Her work is held by the

Harvard Art Museums The Harvard Art Museums are part of Harvard University and comprise three museums: the Fogg Museum (established in 1895), the Busch-Reisinger Museum (established in 1903), and the Arthur M. Sackler Museum (established in 1985), and four research ...

, the

Delaware Art Museum The Delaware Art Museum is an art museum located on the Kentmere Parkway in Wilmington, Delaware, which holds a collection of more than 12,000 objects. The museum was founded in 1912 as the Wilmington Society of the Fine Arts in honor of the artis ...

, the

Charleston Museum The Charleston Museum is a museum located in the Wraggborough neighborhood in Charleston, South Carolina. It is one of the oldest museums in the United States. Its highly regarded collection includes historic artifacts, natural history, decor ...

, the

University of Michigan Museum of Art The University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, Michigan with is one of the largest university art museums in the United States. Built as a war memorial in 1909 for the university's fallen alumni from the Civil War, Alumni Memorial Hall or ...

, the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds ...

, and others. The South Carolina Arts Commission awards the Elizabeth O’Neill Verner Governor’s Awards for the Arts in her honor.

References

External links

The Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Gallery in Charleston, SC, Reviews Its History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Verner, Elizabeth Oneill 1883 births 1979 deaths American women printmakers Artists from Charleston, South Carolina Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts alumni Writers from Charleston, South Carolina American etchers Pastel artists Women etchers 20th-century American printmakers 20th-century American women artists