EDNA STUBBS CATHELL

The daughter of Richmond Mayor Lewis Stubbs, Edna Stubbs Cathell made her career painting roses for the Joseph H. Hill Company. Her early training began with her mother who was a leader in the early art movement in Richmond and an accomplished painter and miniaturist. She studied art at the Cummings School of Art in Des Moines, Iowa after graduating from Earlham College. She had lessons in design from Dr. Denman Ross of Harvard University as well as lessons from the Richmond Group artists, including John E. Bundy, John King and Randolph Coates.
After living in Iowa for eleven years with her husband who was the Rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, she worked for author and poet William Dudley Foulke from 1910-1935 as a literary secretary. A fractured hip, which eventually confined her to a wheelchair, did not stop her from painting still lifes. According to her own recollections, she painted over three hundred and fifty still lives during her career. Of all her accomplishments, she believed that the most important thing she had ever done was to paint a series of “rose portraits” for Mr. Hill’s new roses that originated from his own seedling house.