Bell, Wenonah Day
(1889-1981)
“Georgia Mansion”

Artist Biography

Wenonah Day Bell (1889-1981)

Born/lived: Trenton, SC, Greenville, GA.

Best known: for painting Southern rural life and New York urban scenes, still lifes and portraits in watercolor and oil. Her style, while impressionist, reflected a modernist influence.

Studied: Brenau College, GA, University of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Colarossi Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, the Hans Hofman School of Fine Arts in Munich and Capri, Italy and the Columbia University Teachers College.

Member: Fellowship Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

Exhibited: “Work Song”, Greenville County Museum of Art, SC May 15-July 1, 1990, McKissick Museum, Columbia, SC, September 2-October 28, 1990.
“Wenonah Day Bell”, Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC, January 15- February 3,
PAFA, Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute, Society of Independents, throughout the Southeast, Philadelphia, Detroit, and New York City.

Awards: prestigious William Emlen Cresson Award; the Second Toppan Prize; Mary Smith prize, PAFA, 1926; first prize, GA-AL Artists Exhibition, Nashville, TN.

Work: the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, SC; Bob Jones University, Greenville, SC; the courthouses of Columbus and Greenville, GA; West Georgia State College in Carrollton, GA; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Vanderpoel Memorial Art Gallery, Chicago; the Agricultural Building in Washington, DC; Virginia High School Bristol, VA and private collections.

Taught: Parsons School of Design, NY

Author: “The Restless Bells”