Virginia Keep Clark

Virginia Hynson Keep was born in New Orleans in 1878 and grew up in Indianapolis, where she studied under the landscape painter and art teacher William Forsyth, an associate of T. C. Steele. Between 1902 and 1906, Virginia Keep taught children's art classes at the John Herron Art Institute, now the IU Herron School of Art and Design. She married Marshall John Clark in 1906 and moved to Illinois, opening a portrait studio in Chicago in 1908. She specialized in drawing and painting women and children.

Virginia Keep worked as an illustrator for the Indianapolis publisher Bobbs-Merrill (also known as Bowen-Merrill before 1903). She gained attention for her work for the Live Dolls series of books for children by Josephine Scribner Gates, starting in 1901 with The Story of Live Dolls. Keep also illustrated books for adult readers by prominent Indiana authors such as Max Ehrmann and James Whitcomb Riley. She supplied the illustrations for two stories in Evaleen Stein's Troubadour Tales collection.

Read more about Virginia Keep.

View more books illustrated by Virginia Keep Clark:

Ehrmann, Max. A Fearsome Riddle. Indianapolis: Bowen-Merrill, 1901. Indiana Authors and Their Books. Indiana University Digital Library Program.

Gates, Josephine Scribner. The Live Dolls' House Party. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1906. Courtesy of HathiTrust.

Gates, Josephine Scribner. The Live Dolls in Wonderland. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1912. Courtesy of HathiTrust.

Gates, Josephine Scribner. More About Live Dolls. Toledo, OH: The Franklin Printing & Engraving Company, 1903. Courtesy of HathiTrust.

Goss, Charles Frederic. Little Saint Sunshine. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1902. Courtesy of HathiTrust.

Riley, James Whitcomb. An Old Sweetheart of Mine. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1902. Courtesy of HathiTrust.