Portrait of Clarence Underwood McElroy, n.d.
Oil on canvas, 39-1/2 x 34-1/2 inches
Collection, The Kentucky Museum, Bowling Green

Wickliffe (Cooper) Covington was born July 2, 1867 in Shelby County, Kentucky to Robert Wickliffe and Sarah Steele (Venable) Cooper. In her mid-twenties Wickliffe took a position teaching art at Potter College for Young Ladies in Bowling Green where she met and married lawyer Robert Wells Covington in 1892. After resigning her teaching position, she converted a log cabin near the Covington home into a studio where she taught private lessons and painted. Wickliffe was educated at the Sayre Female Institute in Lexington, the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and New York City's Art Students League. She studied with Carroll Beckwith, Kenyon Cox, William M. Chase and Wayman Adams. Known locally for her portraits of prominent Bowling Green citizens, Covington also executed flower paintings and still lifes. The subject of this painting is Bowling Green lawyer and state legislator Clarence Underwood McElroy. Covington's work was exhibited throughout the South and West where the Covingtons had a second home in Carmel, California. Wickliffe Covington died in Bowling Green on December 1, 1938.

Next | Previous | Home - Artist Index | Sponsors

The Kentucky Museum does not hold copyright to the artwork shown on these pages. Contact KyMus@wku.edu for information about obtaining permission to use these images.

WKU Home | University Libraries | Special Collections | Kentucky Museum | Exhibits Index

November 13, 2001
Created by Donna Parker, Maintained by Web Site Team, Send comments to KyMus@wku.edu
Phone (270) 745-6258, Fax (270) 745-4878
Write to Kentucky Building, 1 Big Red Way, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101-3576.
All Contents Copyright © 2001, 2002 Western Kentucky University

URL: http://www.wku.edu/Library/onlinexh/kwa/covington.html