Catherine Tharp Altvater

Catherine Tharp Altvater (July 26, 1907 – October 9, 1984) was an American oil painter and watercolorist. Her watercolor paintings hang in the Museum of Modern Art and several other museums. Altvater was the first woman to hold office in the American Watercolor Society.

Biography She was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1907. She was married to Wellington Scott and Fredrick Lang Altvater and lived in the Hudson River Valley, New York and Long Island, New York most of her professional life.

She founded the Mid-Southern Watercolorists in Little Rock in 1970, with artists Doris Williamson Mapes, Bruce R. Anderson, Josephine Graham, and Edwin C. Brewer. She lived outside of Scott, Arkansas in Lonoke County for ten years.

She retired to New Smyrna Beach, Florida and died there October 9, 1984.