See how her art lives on through collectors across the country
Come February, the search is on. There’s the possibility of chocolates, flowers, and jewelry, to be sure; but the hardest task is often finding the perfect card for your valentine. Every year, there’s a proliferation of them to choose from—sentimental, loving, funny, or mere emoticons.
Back in the early 20th century, there was a queen of art and emotions who caught the spirit of the times with her colorful renderings of swains and ladies in love: Meta Morris Grimball of Charleston. Descended from Lowcountry families, she was born in Union, South Carolina, on March 26, 1878, and then moved here before pursuing a career as an artist, one of the few professions open to women of a certain class and status.
The Gutmann and Gutmann Company, which specialized in fine art prints, hired Grimball for her images of courting couples—profiles of lovers creating the image of a loving cup as they kiss, a wise cupid pronouncing his verdict of “love for life,” and the like—using them to adorn postcards that winged their way through the mail and into the hearts of many. Even more popular were her works of the results of romance: illustrated blank books for brides to record their ceremonies and baby books for mothers to note their children’s first steps, first words, and other milestones.
Grimball’s specialty was her illustrations of rosy-cheeked, cherubic, smiling children—playing, napping, gardening, and celebrating—that were popular not only in the United States, but also printed abroad, notably in Germany.
Ironically, Grimball never married, and though she exhibited her artwork at the Gibbes Art Gallery (now the Gibbes Museum of Art) in the 1950s and 1960s, she seems to have been largely forgotten by her city. Still, her art lives on in memorial plates favored by collectors across the country. Grimball died on May 20, 1968, and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery. This month’s Milestone column serves as our valentine to her.
