Catherine Wiley

Catherine Wiley
Self-portrait, 1910s
Born	Anna Catherine Wiley (1879-01-18)January 18, 1879 Coal Creek, Tennessee
Died	May 16, 1958(1958-05-16) (aged 79) Knoxville, Tennessee
Nationality	American
Education	University of Tennessee Art Students League of New York
Known for	Painting

Anna Catherine Wiley (January 18, 1879 – May 16, 1958) was an American artist active primarily in the early twentieth century. After training with the Art Students League of New York and receiving instruction from artists such as Lloyd Branson and Frank DuMond, Wiley painted a series of impressionist works that won numerous awards at expositions across the Southern United States, and have since been displayed in museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morris Museum of Art. In 1926, Wiley was institutionalized after suffering a mental breakdown, and never painted again.

Wiley was born in Coal Creek, Tennessee (modern Rocky Top), the daughter of Edwin Floyd Wiley and Mary McAdoo Wiley. She was the granddaughter of prominent attorney and businessman, William Gibbs McAdoo, Sr., and niece of U.S. Treasury Secretary William Gibbs McAdoo, Jr. Her father worked in the coal mining industry, but in 1882 the family moved to Knoxville (their house on Laurel Avenue still stands).

In the mid-1890s, Wiley attended the University of Tennessee, where she gained initial recognition for some illustrations she had created for the school's yearbook. She moved to New York in 1903 to study with the Art Students League, and received extensive instruction from impressionist Frank DuMond (1865–1951). Her time in New York exposed her to a variety of artists and art movements, namely the Ash Can School, the French Barbizon school, and the works of impressionist William Merritt Chase, all of which influenced her later work.

In 1905, after a brief stay at Chase's New York School of Art, Wiley returned to Knoxville to teach art at the University of Tennessee. She continued to receive instruction from long-time Knoxville painter Lloyd Branson, and quickly became a leading figure in the city's art circle. In 1910, Wiley captured the award for "Most Meritorious Collection" at Knoxville's Appalachian Exposition, and chaired the Fine Arts Department for the city's 1913 National Conservation Exposition. In subsequent years, Wiley consistently won the best painter award at various regional exhibitions, and her work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Cincinnati Art Museum, among other places.