One of the South's leading artists during the 1920s and 30s, Elizabeth O'Neill Verner depicted a variety of subjects, including landscapes, florals, portraits and genre studies, but she was chiefly admired for her poetic evocations of Charleston --- its architecture, its alleyways, its vendors and views. "She has caught the spirit," playwright DuBose Heyward wrote. "Only an artist who shares the traditions that form the spiritual background of his locale can hope to capture this elusive element'(Heyward, qtd. in "The News and Courier," 1979).

Born in Charleston, the daughter of a rice broker, Verner began drawing as a child, and studied locally with Alice Huger Smith before spending two years under Thomas Anshutz at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. Returning to Charleston in 1903, she married Pettigrew Verner and raised two children. During this period, she studied informally, painting scenes of Charleston in her spare time, and studying Japanese prints and printing techniques with Alice Smith. In 1923 she took up etching. Two years later she established her own studio and began a successful career as a printmaker and pastellist. Verner exhibited often and widely, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and other institutions acquired examples of her work.

Etching was the first art form that Verner mastered, and she remained devoted to it. Much of her reputation as an artist is owed to the prints she produced of her native city, and to the superb technique and fresh vision they reveal. Verner's interest in etching had been aroused by her friendship with John Taylor Arms, who regularly vacationed in Charleston, and her studies with Alice Smith. She also learned from the example of James McNeill Whistler and Joseph Pennell. Like these famous predecessors, Verner searched for atmosphere, not anecdote, and made Charleston a monochromatic city of intimate alleyways and enchanting shadows, sites and scenes little known to tourists.

Looking for subjects for her etchers eye, Verner favored the effects of morning light. She carried a sketchbook to jot down what appealed to her, and recorded potential motifs from various vantage points. Once selected, she returned to the site with a prepared plate, and worked the image directly onto it, reversing her composition to achieve the correct right-to-left orientation. The plate was then carefully etched and printed by the artist. An edition of 80 was announced, but Verner only pulled enough prints from each etched plate to fill her portfolio. Some of the editions never reached the announced number, and less than 80 prints were sometimes pulled (Myers, p. 11).

An extremely articulate artist, Verner taught, lectured, and authored four books illustrated with her etchings --- Prints and Impressions of Charleston (1939); Mellowed by Time (1941); Other Places (1946); and Stonewall Ladies (1963). She also illustrated DuBose Heyward's Porgy, published in 1925. NRS

Sources
The News and Courier, Charleston, South Carolina. May 2, 1979.

Myers, Lynn Robertson. "Doing and Creating: A Biographical Sketch," Mirror of Time. Columbia: The University of South Carolina, 1984.

Biography courtesy of The Charleston Renaissance Gallery, www.antiquesandfineart.com/charleston