Charleston Renaissance

movement c. 1920-1940 Charleston, South Carolina United States

The Charleston Renaissance was the cultural flowering of Charleston, South Carolina, in the 1920s and 1930s, when a circle of artists, writers and preservationists turned the decaying colonial city into a subject and a cause. Alice Ravenel Huger Smith painted the Lowcountry marshes and Gullah life in delicate watercolor; Elizabeth O'Neill Verner and Alfred Hutty revived etching with views of church steeples, gardens and city streets; Anna Heyward Taylor brought bright watercolor pattern to the same subjects. Their romantic, nostalgic images - tied to the city's early preservation movement and to DuBose Heyward's literature - drew tourists and collectors, helped save much of the historic townscape, and made a southern regionalist current in American art.

"Bayou Scene," watercolor, by South Carolina artist Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. Private collection.
"Bayou Scene," watercolor, by South Carolina artist Alice Ravenel Huger Smith. Private collection.Public domain (credit: Alice Ravenel Huger Smith) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Lowcountry subjects: salt marshes, live oaks, church steeples, historic streets
  • Delicate watercolor washes and tonal atmosphere
  • Revival of etching as a fine-art print medium
  • Romantic, nostalgic historicism tied to preservation
  • Gentle, diffused southern light and soft edges

Key figures

  • Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (1863-1935) — Watercolorist of the Lowcountry marshes and Gullah life
  • Elizabeth O'Neill Verner (1883-1979) — Etcher and painter of Charleston streets and gardens
  • Alfred Hutty (1877-1954) — Printmaker of Charleston scenes in drypoint and etching

Example works

  • Bayou Scene — Alice Ravenel Huger Smith (1920)

Sources

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