Emma Cheves Wilkins

Emma Cheves Wilkins (1870–1956) was an American painter who played a major role in the art scene in Savannah, Georgia during the upfront twentieth century. Her works can be found in the unshakable collections of Armstrong State University in Savannah, the Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, the Telfair Museum of Art in Savannah, and in private collections.

Emma Cheves Wilkins was born on December 10, 1870, the first child of Emma Cheves and Gilbert A. Wilkins. She was a lifelong resident of Savannah, Georgia and family the artistic talents of her mother and grandmother. She studied at the Telfair Academy below Carl Brandt. Alongside her mom in the 1890s, Wilkins taught art lessons at a studio in Savannah as the shout from the rooftops for her artwork extended. As a self-sustaining artist, Wilkins painted portraits of judges, politicians, bankers, doctors, and to a lesser extent of women and children.

Wilkins traveled to Paris in 1896 later than fellow Savannah artist Lucile Desbouillons. The pair lived at the American Girl's Club for a few months and were enrolled in Gustave-Claude-Etienne Courtois and Louis-Auguste Girardot's classes for foreigners at the Académie Colarossi. In the 1900s, she began restorative artwork on several paintings. Wilkins in addition to exhibited her ham it up frequently. In 1931, she was awarded a prize for the "best local subject painted in or something like Savannah" for a fake she exhibited at the eleventh annual exhibition of the Southern States Art League.