Queena Stovall (December 20, 1887 – June 27, 1980) was an American folk artist. Sometimes called "The Grandma Moses of Virginia", she is famous for depicting everyday events in the lives of both white and black families in rural settings.[1]

Queena Stovall
Born
Emma Serena Dillard

(1887-12-20)December 20, 1887
Amherst County, Virginia, U.S.
DiedJune 27, 1980(1980-06-27) (aged 92)
Known forPainting
MovementAmerican Folk Art

Early life

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Born Emma Serena Dillard in Amherst County, Virginia, she received the nickname “Queena” from her grandmother because of the way young children would pronounce "Serena". She married Jonathan Breckenridge Stovall, a traveling salesman, in 1908 and the pair had nine children. The family lived in Lynchburg, Virginia during the fall and winter and on a farm near Elon, Virginia during the spring and summer.[2]

Career

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After her brother persuaded her to take an art class at nearby Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Stovall began painting at age sixty-two. Her instructor there was Spanish artist Pierre Daura, who encouraged her to stop taking classes and develop her own unique style.[2]

Stovall's career spanned less than two decades, and she produced forty-nine paintings.[1] Her art depicted scenes of ordinary rural life such as crop harvests, animal butchering, funerals, jarring for the winter, baptisms, cooking, and livestock and estate auctions. Stovall combined bright colors with attentive details, and would use figures out of magazines and advertisements to understand the composition needed for her paintings. Her first solo exhibition was at the Lynchburg Art Center in 1956. Stovall continued to paint until her health started to decline in the late 1960s.[2]

Legacy

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Stovall's work is currently found in family collections, Virginia-area museums such as the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and other museums such as the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York.[3] The Daura Gallery at the University of Lynchburg holds the largest public collection of Stovall’s work.[1]

Exhibitions and features

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Other media

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  • The 1983 film Queena Stovall: Life's Narrow Space was produced by Jack Ofield.[6]
  • Stovall's work was featured the book The Art of Queena Stovall: Images of Country Life by Claudine Weatherford in 1986[7]
  • In conjunction with the exhibit Inside Looking Out, the Art of Queena Stovall, Daura Gallery curators compiled a book with the same title.[8]

Cultural

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Schkloven, Emma (March 17, 2018). "'She'll be forever with us': Amherst County native Queena Stovall subject of exhibit, new book, historical marker". The News & Advance. Lynchburg, Virginia. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c d Shiflett, Kaitlin (November 9, 2015). "Queena Stovall: A Southern Memory Painter". Lynchburg Museum System. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Memory Painting: Harriet French Turner and Queena Stovall". Taubman Museum of Art. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  4. ^ Sellen, Betty-Carol; Johanson, Cynthia J. (2000). Self-taught, Outsider and Folk Art: A Guide to American Artists, Locations and Resources (Updated and rev. ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 276. ISBN 9780786407453. OCLC 41439642.
  5. ^ "Inside Looking Out: The Art of Queena Stovall closing October 14". Virginia Museum of History & Culture. Virginia Historical Society. n.d. Archived from the original on October 9, 2018. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  6. ^ "Life's Narrow Space". Folkstreams. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  7. ^ Weatherford, Claudine (1986). The Art of Queena Stovall: Images of Country Life. American Material Culture and Folklife. Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI Research Press. ISBN 0835717658. OCLC 13794109.
  8. ^ "Daura Gallery releases book about artist Queena Stovall, sponsors highway marker". University of Lynchburg. March 1, 2018. Retrieved November 1, 2019.
  9. ^ "Virginia Women in History: Queena Stovall". Library of Virginia. Archived from the original on January 11, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2024.
  10. ^ Schaedel, Sydney (October 24, 2017). "New historic highway marker to honor local artist". The News & Advance. Lynchburg, Virginia. Retrieved July 14, 2024.

Further reading

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  • Jones, Louis C.; Jones, Agnes Halsey (1974). Queena Stovall, Artist of the Blue Ridge Piedmont: An Exhibition. New York State Historical Association..
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