Anna Catherine Wiley (Tennessee, 1879-1958) oil on canvas painting of a woman in a white dress, viewed from below, seated on a split rail fence with a green parasol held in her left hand, under a cloud-filled blue sky. The subject looks to the viewer”s left as her upswept hair blows in the wind and her parasol shades her face and the upper half of her body. The branches of a tree extend into the sky at the upper left while two additional trees flank a distant mountain range behind her. Signed and dated “Catherine Wiley 1911″ lower right. Housed in the original giltwood frame. Canvas: 33 5/8″ H x 25 5/8″ W. Frame: 40 1/2″ H x 32 3/4″ W. Exhibition History: Knoxville Museum of Art; A Gilded Age: Knoxville Artists, 1875-1925; September 15, 1995-January 14, 1996.

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Biography: Catherine Wiley is one of Tennessee”s most important nationally recognized artists. She was one of the early female students at the University of Tennessee, and was later credited with establishing formal art instruction at the school. Wiley studied at the Art Students League in New York under Frank DuMond, and spent summers learning from major American impressionists such as Robert Reid, Jonas Lie, and Martha Walter. She won numerous prizes including two Gold Medals at the Appalachian Exposition in 1910 and her paintings were exhibited at prominent American venues including the National Academy of Design in New York and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Her thriving career was ended by a mental collapse which left her institutionalized until her death.

PROVENANCE: Living Estate of Dr. Jerry Waters and Collection of Dr. Carole Wahler.

CONDITION: Overall very good condition with stabilized craquelure throughout. Professionally conserved in the Fall of 1991 by Cumberland Art Conservation (conservation label en verso; report available to the winning bidder). One vertical area of inpainting to the central fold of dress plus a few slight, scattered areas to the right arm”s sleeve and to the sky, center left.