Pastel Portrait Paintings

Pair of pastels representing a couple. they are original pastels by an unknown artist in the thirties.

Elizabeth Quale O'Neill Verner "Dolly - Flower Woman" (1883 - 1979) Charleston, South Carolina Artist Image Size: 9 x 9 Frame Size: 12 x 12 Medium: Pastel on Silk Circa 1930s Elizabeth Quale O'Neill Verner (1883 - 1979) Biography Elizabeth Quale O'Neill Verner A leader in establishing Charleston, South Carolina as a dynamic cultural center, Elizabeth Verner depicted the historic city's seemingly endless supply of subject matter including lush landscape, architectural landmarks, and local people. Many of her paintings were pastel on silk. She was also proficient as an etcher and a part of the Charleston Etcher's Club whose members did etchings of Charleston's historic architecture. Their work, published in national media, brought widespread attention to the charms of the area. She worked especially hard, printing her own plates and selling prints, and during the spring seasons opened her studio to tourists and housed visitors in her home. She also served as a guide to Charleston and wrote and illustrated several books that furthered her own career as well as promoted Charleston as a visitor destination. When the mayor tried to outlaw flower vendors, she fought to retain these black women who came from outlying areas to sell their flowers and hand made baskets. She wrote: "I wanted the flower women because I painted them and I need them as models" (Magazine Antiques 11/98). These subjects appear regularly in her etchings. She was also one of the few artists of the Charleston Renaissance to work in pastel, which she pursued after being inspired by an exhibition of floral pastels by Laura Coombs Hills in Boston. From that time, Verner was persuaded that pastels were a more effective medium for conveying her flower vendors. Her former home and studio from 1938 is now The Elizabeth O'Neill Verner Museum at 79 Church Street in Charleston. South Carolina artist, Elizabeth Quale O'Neill was born December 21, 1883, at 38 Chalmers Street in Charleston, South Carolina. She was one of 11 sisters and 2 brothers. She showed an early interest in art. Starting in her teen years, she began painting cityscapes of Charleston and set up her first studio in the rear of her parents' house at 43 Legare Street. O'Neill-Verner studied at the Pennsylvania Academy (1901 to 1903) with Thomas Anchutz as a teenager. She remained in the realist school of painting as exemplified by Thomas Eakins when the art world was swept away by the international modernist movement. Her sex was no hindrance to success and she was showered with acclaim and honors. In 1907, she married E. Pettigrew Verner, together they had two children, Elizabeth Pettigrew (born 1908) and David Battle (born 1911). From 1910 to 1936, she had her second studio in the garden at 3 Atlantic Street and also shared other studio space with Alice Huger Ravenel Smith. In the early 1920's she began etching and widely exhibiting. Her husband, E. Pettigrew Verner died in 1925. She attended the London Central Arts School as an honored artist in 1930 and traveled Europe, while abroad. She married Thomas E. Myers in 1932, ceased etching in 1933 and in 1935 T.E. Myers died. Her third studio (1936) was at 85 Church Street in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1937 she traveled to Japan and produced drypoints of Japan, but by 1937 she began work as a pastelist. In 1938, she established her fourth and last studio at 38 Tradd Street, Charleston, South Carolina. During this time she traveled to the Caribbean, Mexico, Europe, the Orient and produced pastels and watercolors from her trips. In 1968 she suffered a broken back and in 1979 she died in Charleston. Her long career, which stretched from the turn of the Twentieth Century until her last large work in 1967, include all the etchings that were made between 1925 and 1932 and all the drypoints that were produced between 1932 and 1937. Elizabeth O'Neill Verner was born in Charleston, South Carolina on December 21, 1883. Her artistic gifts were encouraged and developed by her maternal grandfather, Henry Franklin Baker, who had been a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and by Alice Ravenel Huger Smith...

'Modern Urban Woman in Nude', pastel on coloured fine art paper, (circa 1930s), by Charles Auguste Edelmann (1879 - 1950). The quality of this work and skill of the artist is unquest...