Lot 682: Ruth Cobb Brice Great Smoky Mountain Landscape Painting

Ruth Cobb Brice (Knoxville, 1899-1971) oil on board East Tennessee landscape painting that depicts a dirt path which winds through a meadow filled with colorful flowers and trees, with distant foothills beyond, 1963. Signed “Ruth C. Cobb” and dated June 1963, lower right. Sight: 23 1/4 in H x 29 1/4 in W. Frame: 28 1/2 in H x 34 1/2 in W. Biographical Note: “Born in Knoxville, Ruth Cobb Brice graduated from Swift Memorial College, a historically Black college in Rogersville, and was soon teaching at schools in Rogersville, Greeneville, and LaFollette. During the summer months she studied at the Tennessee Agricultural & Industrial State University in Nashville. The Knox County School District hired Brice in 1928 to teach art at Heiskell Elementary School, then a public school for Black children. She later taught at Maynard Elementary in Mechanicsville. Brice’s interest in art blossomed more fully while studying at Knoxville College during the mid-1930’s. When she had the opportunity, she studied with professional artists in Washington, D.C. In the 1940’s, she began writing poetry under the pseudonym Rachel Jane McKinney. In 1949 she published a poetry booklet called ‘The Wrong Slant.’ While very short, the booklet gives her a claim to be Knoxville’s first Black female author. On her business card she described herself as ‘poetess and lecturer.’ By 1953, she was exhibiting her artwork in Knoxville, and over the next two decades, she became a familiar face in local galleries…In 1968, Brice became the first Black artist to join the invitation-only Knoxville Watercolor Society. Brice’s work was shown across the country, from Omaha, Nebraska, to New York City, as well as locally at Knoxville College, which offered an exhibit of her work in 1967; the University of Tennessee; and Dulin Gallery of Art. Near the end of her life, she painted two notable murals for East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in 1970.” (Source: Beck Cultural Exchange Center)

CONDITION: Overall very good condition.