Queena Stovall (1887-1980)

R-24

Emma Serena Dillard “Queena” Stovall, artist, was born outside Lynchburg and for 35 years lived near here on a farm called the Wigwam. A mother of nine, she took her first painting class at the age of 61. Her instructor, the acclaimed artist Pierre Daura, recognized her distinctive talent and refused to offer guidance for fear of changing her style. Stovall's folk art paintings document rural life in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, depicting family scenes, farm chores, and community events involving African American and white neighbors. Her works have been displayed in galleries, museums, and traveling exhibitions across the eastern United States.

Department of Historic Resources, 2017

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References/Bibliographic Citation:

Lynchburg News, 28 June 1980. Queena Stovall: Artist of the Blue Ridge Piedmont, An Exhibition (Catalogue, 1975). Queena Stovall: Reflections of a Country Life (Exhibition Catalogue, Daura Gallery, Lynchburg College, 2009). Claudine Weatherford, The Art of Queena Stovall: Images of Country Life (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1986). Claudine Weatherford, “Queena Stovall: ‘Country Woman’?...or a World-Class Personality?...or Both?” Lynch’s Ferry, vol. 2 (Fall/Winter 1980): 5-8. Claudine Weatherford, “Queena Stovall’s ‘Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,’” Lynch’s Ferry, vol. 2 (Fall/Winter 1980): 16-17. Barbara Rothermel, “Queena Stovall: Reflections of a Country Life,” Folk Art: Magazine of the Museum of American Folk Art (Spring 1999): 38-45. Queena Stovall, Virginia Women in History (2010): http://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/vawomen/2010/honoree.asp?bio=4 American Art: American Vision: Paintings from a Century of Collecting (Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, 1990). Mrs. Cassell D. Holt, “Folk Artist Queena Stovall,” Southern Accents (Summer 1980): 72-75.