Ida Crawley, American 1862-1940), Self Portrait, signed and dated lower left 1913. Framed 112″ x 53″ – Ida Jolly Crawley – painted in Paris – 1912
Ida Jolly Crawley (1867-1946) was born in Pond Creek, Tennessee. In addition to being an artist, she was also a writer, lecturer, and amateur anthropologist. She founded the Crawley Museum of Art and Archaeology in her home on Park Avenue in Asheville, North Carolina.
She studied at the Corcoran Art School in Washington, D.C. and in Germany and Paris. In 1904 exhibited her work at the Appalachian Exposition in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she won a gold medal. She painted landscapes, large canvases with women in spider webs, and was considered a skillful copier of European masters.
