Martha Simkins Art

Martha Simkins was born in Monticello, Florida, and moved to Corsicana in 1871, and was educated in public schools. She attended the University of Texas and then moved to New York, where she studied six years at the Art Students League of New York and a year at Columbia University. Simkins studied under William Merritt Chase, Kenyon Cox and Henry Siddons Mowbray. She returned to Corsicana and taught in the public schools in 1901. Simkins then taught at North Texas Normal School in Denton from 1901–06. She returned to New York and studied with William Merritt Chase again, and Henry Bayley Snell and Emil Carlsen, after which she traveled to Europe, where she studied with Cecilia Beaux and John Singer Sargent. From 1915–24, Simkins divided her time and work between New York City, Woodstock, where she maintained a studio and her home in Dallas. She continued teaching at the College of Industrial Arts, Denton and produced numerous portrait commissions. Simkins died in Los Angeles County, California.