Emma Cheves Wilkins (1870-1956)
- Emma Cheves Wilkins (1870-1956)
- Camellias on a Tabletop
- Oil on canvas
- 17 1/2 x 23 1/2 inches
- Signed lower left
A Savannah native, Wilkins was a descendant of the Cheves family of South Carolina who owned plantations along the Savannah River.[1] She inherited her artistic talent from her mother and namesake, Emma Cheves Wilkins, and her maternal grandmother Charlotte McCord Cheves. Her mother was known for her floral studies and her grandmother for her work in miniature.[2] Wilkins began her formal art training at the Telfair Academy under its first director, the German American artist Carl L. Brandt. During the summer of 1895, she studied in Paris at the Academie Colarossi under Gustave Courtois and Louise-Auguste Giradot while residing at the American Girls Club.[3]
