Caroline Couper Stiles Lovell

Caroline Couper Stiles Lovell ( – ) was an American artist and writer. She was a central figure in the cultural life of Birmingham, Alabama in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Early life and education Caroline Couper Stiles Lovell was born on at Etowah Cliffs, the Bartow County, Georgia plantation of her grandfather, William Henry Stiles. She was one of eight children of Robert Mackay Stiles, a merchant in Savannah, Georgia, and Margaret Wylly Couper, daughter of planter and slave owner James Hamilton Couper. Due to the American Civil War, Robert Stiles had sent his pregnant wife from coastal Savannah to inland Bartow County in northern Georgia.

Following the Civil War, Robert Stiles built a home near Etowah Cliffs he called Malbone, after his cousin, the painter Edward Greene Malbone. When Caroline was 12, her father died in a carriage accident, leaving her mother to raise the children. Her childhood was divided between Malbone and her aunts in Savannah, and her early schooling was at the Massie School and Oglethorpe Academy. She was an avid writer and artist as a child, even starting a family magazine called The Malbone Bouquet, largely created by her and her cousin Daisy Gordon.

Lovell's civic activities included the Birmingham Art Club and the Birmingham Art League. She supported the art education of children and young artists, including forming two art schools: the Birmingham Art School and the Birmingham School of Art. She took 18 year old painter Lutie Sharpe to Paris for a year to study at the Académie Colarossi, and Lowell herself studied miniature painting there.

Death After her husband died in 1942, Caroline Couper Stiles Lovell moved to Savannah to live with her sisters, where she died on 12 February 1947.