Born in Coal Creek, Tennessee, but raised in Knoxville, Catherine Wiley attended the University of Tennessee, and then spent two years with Frank DuMond at the Art Students League in New York. Returning to Knoxville in 1905, she began a thirteen-year teaching stint at the University, while also pursuing a career in painting. She exhibited locally, at the National Academy of Design in New York, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and in 1910 won the H. J. Cook gold medal at the Appalachian Exposition. In 1912 the artist returned briefly to New York to study with the American Impressionist Robert Reid, whose style she admired, and in 1914 or 1915, she worked with Jonas Lie at the New York School of Applied Arts on Long Island.

Around 1912, influenced by Reid, Wiley adopted an impressionist style and began to paint scenes of women in comfortable interiors, or out-of doors in sun-drenched gardens. Characteristically, the figures are depicted in floral environments, dressed in white, or in soft pastel colors, and almost always carrying parasols.

Wiley's career was sadly cut short in 1926 when a mental breakdown forced her to be hospitalized. She spent the rest of her life in an institution, never painting again. (NRShaw)

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