Nellie Augusta Knopf (California / Illinois / Michigan, 1875-1962), view of the San Antonio Riverwalk, oil on canvas, signed lower right

sight: 27 x 30 in., frame: 34.5 x 37.5 in.

Provenance: Property from a home in Fairhope, Alabama

Nellie Augusta Knopf trained at the Art Institute of Chicago under John Vanderpoel and Frederick Freer, graduating in 1900, and later studied with Charles Woodbury in Ogunquit, Maine, and Birger Sandzén at the Broadmoor Academy. A longtime educator, she joined the faculty of Illinois Women’s College in 1900 and remained there until 1943, earning a doctorate from the college in 1935. Beginning in 1921, Knopf undertook extensive painting trips throughout the American West, including California, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, Texas, Colorado, and Glacier National Park, as well as later travels to Mexico. Her work was exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery, National Academy of Design, Kansas City Museum of Art, and Detroit Institute of Arts, and MacMurray College honored her legacy with a major retrospective in 1987.