Alice Rumph

Alice Edith Rumph (1878–1978) was a painter of watercolors and pastels, an etcher, and an art teacher. Rumph co-founded the Birmingham Art Club, which established the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama. She served as the club's founding vice president and later as its president. In 2004, Birmingham Historical Society published Art of the New South: Women Artists of Birmingham 1890-1950. The volume features the artwork of Rumph and seven other prominent artists from the city.

Early life and education

Rumph, a descendant of John Washington, was born to Mary Hume and Cornelius Mandeville Rumph in Rome, Georgia on May 9, 1877. After graduating from high school, she served as the secretary/treasurer of the Birmingham Art League. When the group ceased operating, Rumph studied art under William Parrish. In 1900, she received a three-year artist scholarship from the Continental Gin Company, a manufacturer of cotton gins that employed her father. Rumph then moved to London, England to begin her studies in Europe. After touring London and Berlin, Germany, she settled in Paris, France with a residency at the American Club of Paris. In the fall of 1900, Rumph began taking courses at the Académie Colarossi.

Rumph also continued to paint watercolors. She received awards from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the American Watercolor Society in 1931. In 1932, Rumph received an award for her etchings from the Society of American Etchers (now the Society of American Graphic Artists). In 1938, she won the Lila May Chapman Purchase Prize for Our Stairway at the Southern States Art League's exhibition at the Witte Museum in San Antonio, Texas.

Collections

The Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. features two of Rumph's etchings: The Doctor's Office and Spring in the City. The Chicago Society of Etchers donated both works from 1935.