Mary Tannahill

Mary Harvey Tannahill (January 11, 1863 – June 21, 1951) was an American painter, printmaker, embroiderer and batik maker.

Tannahill was born on January 11, 1863, on "Kinderhook", the family estate in Warren County, North Carolina.

Her parents were Sallie Jones Sims and Robert Tannahill, a Confederate soldier and businessman who was active in Petersburg, Virginia, and New York City.

They frequently visited Petersburg, Virginia and Warrenton, North Carolina, where other family members lived.

[2] She studied with various teachers, including Kenyon Cox, John Henry Twachtman, Harry Siddons Mowbray, J. Alden Weir, and Arthur Wesley Dow.

[1][2] She returned to the New York and began to spend the summers on Cape Cod and in Provincetown, Massachusetts,[1] where she later studied with Blanche Lazzell.

[6] She then painted with tempera and oils, and explored creating works of art with embroidery, batik, and woodblock printing,[1][2] in the white-line style of the Provincetown Printers.

She soon became a close friend of William and Marguerite Zorach and Robert Henri as well, through them becoming introduced to the work of the Art Students League of New York.

She evinced interest in continued artistic growth throughout her career, absorbing influences such as Cubism and Precisionism in some of her later works.

[1] Her work was displayed over her career at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco and at shows by the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors.