Lot 1241: Hugh Poe & Mary E. Grainger Pastel Portraits, Tennessee/Indiana Interest

1st item: Hugh M. Poe (Tennessee/Indiana, 1902-1972) oval pastel portrait drawing that depicts a young man shown in bust-length. He wears a white shirt with a black cravat and smiles slightly. Signed and dated 1933 in pencil, lower left. Housed under glass in a giltwood frame. Sight: 11 in. H x 9 in. W. Framed: 14 1/4 in. H x 12 1/4 in. W. 1933. Biographical Note: Hugh M. Poe was born in Dallas, TX, in 1904 and moved to Knoxville, TN, at the age of four. He studied at East Knoxville’s Mason School of Art, founded by Robert Lindsay Mason (1874-1952), and was a teacher of Ted Burnett (1909-1982) before entering the John Herron Art Institute (now the IU Herron School of Art and Design) in Indianapolis, IN, in 1919, where he studied with the American Impressionist William Forsyth (1854-1935). Poe made a career in Indianapolis and, in 1925, received a notable commission to paint sixty-three portraits of Culver Military Academy students who had lost their lives in the First World War. His 1924 painting “Herman and Verman,” which depicts two African American characters from Booth Tarkington’s Penrod stories, is in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields. Poe exhibited at the Hoosier Salon and East Tennessee Division Fair, among other venues. His art is also included in the collection of the Knoxville Museum of Art. (Sources: “Herron Institute Product Wins Portrait Commission The Indianapolis Star, July 15, 1924; Askart: The Artists’ Bluebook; Indianapolis Museum of Art). 2nd item: Mary Etta Grainger (Knoxville, 1880-1963) oval pastel portrait drawing that depicts a young woman in a blue dress seated in a chair. Signed lower right. Housed under glass in a giltwood frame. Sight: 19 5/8 in. H x 15 1/2 in. W. Framed:  21 in. H x 16 3/4 in. W.  Biographical Note: Mary Etta Grainger, known for her portraits, landscapes, and murals, headed the art department at Knoxville High and was a member of the Nicholson Art League. The daughter of an English immigrant, she studied at the New York School of Art and later lived on Luttrell Street in Knoxville. At Knoxville High, she taught many young Knoxville artists including painter Frank W. Long and writer and filmmaker Laura Thornborough. Grainger’s great-grandmother was one of the first five co-eds to attend Blount College, today known as the University of Tennessee, and Grainger honored these women in a series of c. 1953 portraits. (Adapted from Jack Neely, “The Twenties Revisted,” Knoxville History Project, and “Painted Portrait of Barbara Blount,” McClung Museum of Natural History & Culture)

PROVENANCE: Private Knoxville Collection

CONDITION: Both items in overall very good condition. 1st item’s frame with accretions and approximately 1/2 in. x 1/4 in. loss to left side. 2nd item’s frame with abrasions and losses to gilt.