Jenny Eakin Delony

Jenny Eakin Delony, also known as Jenny Eakin Delony Rice and Jenny Meyrowitz, (1866–1949) was an American painter and educator. She specialized in portraits of notable and historic figures in the United States, but also made miniature, landscape, wildlife, still life, and genre paintings. She was the founder of collegiate art education in Arkansas.

Early life and education

Delony was born in Washington, Arkansas, on May 13, 1866, to Alchyny Turner Delony, a lawyer, and Elizabeth Pearson Delony.

She received a gold medal in music and art when she studied at the Wesleyan Female Institution in Staunton, Virginia. Delony began her professional study at Art Academy of Cincinnati from 1886 to 1888. At least two years followed in Paris, where Delony studied at the Académie Julian, the Académie Delécluse, and in the atelier of painter Paul-Louis Delance.

She later studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts

Career Jenny Eakin Delony was one of the first woman artist from Arkansas to gain a reputation as a successful painter in the United States and internationally. Delony became one of the first women members and one of the first women to exhibit at the National Academy of Design. Her works were exhibited at Philadelphia, Boston and New York miniature painters societies, the Woman's Art Club of New York, National Academy of Design, and the New York Water Color Club.

Educator Delony taught art in Virginia for three years, first at Virginia Female Institute in Roanoke (1893–1894), then Norfolk College for Young Ladies in Norfolk (1894–1896). From 1897 through 1899, she was the first Director of Art for Arkansas Industrial University, which became during her tenure the University of Arkansas (UA) in Fayetteville.

She is buried at Oakland & Fraternal Historic Cemetery Park in Little Rock.

Personal life Delony married Nathaniel J. Rice of Denver, Colorado, on December 10, 1891, he died in 1893.

Her second marriage was to Paul A. Meyrowitz, on November 19, 1910

She was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and Daughters of the American Revolution. Governor Thomas Chipman McRae is located on the North Wing, first floor of the Arkansas State Capitol