Abernathy, Inez (1873-1956)

Born in Summerville, AK, Abernathy studied at the Art Academy in Cincinnati and later in Europe. She supported herself by teaching art and elocution at Belmont College (TN), Stanford Female College (KY), Columbia Female Institute (TN), the University of Arkansas, and the Florida Female College. At this last institution, when a fire broke out Abernathy guided her students to safety rather than saving her own art and equipment; the Florida legislature passed a special bill to help compensate her loss (The Weekly True Democrat 29 Sept 1905: 1). She studied art for a period in Paris, and her painting “Reverie” was shown at the 1902 Salon des artistes français, described by one reporter as “the full-length figure of a girl seated, with a background of dull blues and yellows. A springtime freshness pervades the picture” (San Francisco Chronicle 26 Oct. 1902: 6). Her works were exhibited at the Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, and the National Academy of Design. Two more images from FAP.

Works in the New Deal Collection at GVCA by Inez Abernathy:

New Deal Collection

Blue and Gold

The depiction of the foreground illustrates a rural setting in the midst of an urbanizing town in the background – a changing sociocultural climate in New York. Abernathy uses a quick, painterly style to show that the brushstrokes are an instrumental part of the canvas, something purposeful given the context of her formal training. She exercises her education in the way she portrays the depth of the painting – the contrast between the two portrayals of different lifestyles emphasizes a changing direction among a rural discourse of life.

October Afternoon

An inscription on the reverse side of Abernathy's canvas identifies her location as somewhere near Wallkill, NY; more specific landmarks or even skylines cannot be discerned because the space here is so enclosing. Impressionistic splashes of fall color swirl around the sharper forms of tree trunks and branches. Patterns of foliage are reflected in the creek below, with gentle ripples creating a horizontal counterpart.

Spring in Central Park

We see a river flowing between two banks lined with trees. The trees are mostly bare; however, they appear as they are going to start budding. The colors in this painting are cooler—blues and greens—but there is a hint of warm yellow in the lower left corner.

Spring in Wallkill, NY

The painting captures the open fields of Wallkill on a spring day. Abernathy’s thick brush strokes depict a tree on the left side of the midground with mountains in the background. Beyond the tree is a tan field, its color suggesting a recent harvest, separated from green fields by wooden fencing. The shadow the tree casts suggests there is sun, but with the multitude of clouds, the day could be partly sunny.

The Lake, Central Park

Against New York's skyline in the background, people relax in boats upon a body of water. The colors are cooler, with lots of dark and bright greens, and also lots of blues. The boaters are painted in warmer colors, along with red, to make them stand out more. Abernathy's brushstrokes are thick and heavy, giving this painting a rough texture.

The Oak Tree

On a purely aesthetic level, this portrayal of rural farm life in autumn is quite clearly done in a painterly matter: quick brushstrokes with a specific choice to omit most detail. It can be assumed that the light-handed application of paint was a specific technique chosen to represent the image’s literal depiction of a calm day in autumn. In the context of its allocation to a tuberculosis sanatorium, the oak tree itself can be analyzed as a symbol of strength--a diagnosis of the disease in the 1930’s meant a slow death.

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abernathyGVCAJune 9, 2020