Lot 541: Willis, Eola

Willis, Eola American, SC (1856-1952) MAGNOLIA ON THE ASHLEY watercolor on paper, framed signed & titled: lower left, and on verso in pencil "Magnolia on the Ashley, 22 miles from Charleston, SC showing the lake and azalea beds" H7 1/2" W14" *Artist biography: Born Dalton, Georgia; studied music in New York, also literature, writing, and drama at Columbia College, and art with William Merritt Chase at the Art Students League, circa 1896-1899; in Paris, 1900, and continued on to College de France; Chairman of the Fine Arts Division at the South Carolina Interstate and West Indian Exposition, 1901-1902; appointed to the City of Charleston Art Commission by the mayor in 1915; Member of the Carolina Art Association; Society for Preservation of Old Buildings (historian). Exhibitions include Charleston Exposition, 1902 prize awarded. Author of The Charleston Stage in the XVIII Century: With Social Settings of the Time, and Henrietta Johnson, First Woman Painter in America; died in Charleston, South Carolina. *Reference: Severens, Martha R. THE CHARLESTON RENAISSANCE. Saraland Press, South Carolina 1998. pgs 13, 25, 73, 74, 143, 146, 184 and 186. and Falk, Peter Hastings. WHO WAS WHO IN AMERICAN ART 1564-1975. Sound View Press, 1999. vol III, pg 3588.