Sallie Smith (Tennessee, 19th/20th Century) charcoal and gouache on paper drawing, possibly an allegory, depicting a young boy, likely meant to represent the god Dionysus, holding a bunch of grapes and a young girl, likely meant to represent the goddess Demeter, holding a sickle and a small bunch of grapes, seated next to a sheaf of wheat. Signed and inscribed "Sallie Smith/Soule Female College/Murfreesboro. Tenn." lower left. Housed under glass in a distressed giltwood frame. Sight: 29" H x 21" W. Framed: 34" H x 26" W. Note: "Located on North Maple Street from 1853 to 1917, Soule College was Murfreesboro's longest-lived female academy. Soule offered instruction from primary education through college. Women always made up more than half the faculty. The school reached its apex in 1904, when 28 women received diplomas under the leadership of progressive educator Virginia Oceania Wardlaw. The 1908 catalog emphasized that the college was "not a fashionable society school" but a place designed to teach women 'how to live as well as how to think.' Well-known local women who attended Soule include Mattie Ready (who later married General John Hunt Morgan), Kate Carney (who later taught at Soule), artist Willie Betty Newman, and Jean Marie Faircloth (who later married General Douglas MacArthur)." (source: https://www.mtsuhistpres.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/In-the-Footsteps-of-Notable-Women.pdf). Provenance: The Estate of James W. Perkins, Jr., Nashville, Tennessee.

Overall good condition with toning. Areas of loss/acid burn, largest 1 1/4", to paper with overpainting, primarily to left side of girl's face and chest. 1" tear, top center of sheet. Not examined outside of frame.