Born in Philadelphia, Elisha K.K. Wetherill attended the University of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in the late 1890s and from 1906-09. He studied with Thomas Anshutz at the Academy. He also studied in Paris at the Academy Julian with Jean-Paul Laurens and with James Abbott McNeill Whistler.

A member of the National Academy of Design, the Philadelphia Sketch Club, Salmagundi Club, and Allied Artists' Association and the Brooklyn Society of Etchers, Wetherill exhibited at the Academy annuals (1906-10 and 1921-27), the Corcoran biennials (1907-26), the Panama-Pacific Expo, San Francisco (1915), the Sesqui-centennial Expo, Philadelphia (1926), the Salons of America, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

His work is in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Art Club of Philadelphia, and the Luxembourg Museum in Paris.

The following is from Peter Kostoulakos, AOA, NEAA: Fine Art Consultant, www.pkart.com

Elisha Kent Kane Wetherill
1874-1929

Elisha Kent Kane Wetherill, painter, etcher and WWI veteran, was born in Philadelphia, PA on September 1, 1874 and died in Aberdeen, NC on March 9, 1929 as a result of injuries received in WWI. Wetherill's subjects included portraits, views of New York, seascapes, landscapes, nudes, mountains, villages, harbors and rivers. New York City (East 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue), Phoenicia, NY, and Aberdeen, NC are places Wetherill resided and maintained studios.

Wetherill's studies took place in America and abroad. He studied at the University of Pennsylvania; the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Anshutz (1851-1912) in the late 1890s and from 1906 to 1909; Jean Paul Laurens (1838-1921) in 1902: and in Paris with James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903).

Elisha Wetherill held memberships with the National Academy of Design, Associate 1927; Salmagundi Club, NYC; Allied Artists of America, NYC; Brooklyn Society of Etchers, NY; and Philadelphia Sketch Club. He exhibited work at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (annual) from 1906 to 1910, and 1921 to 1927; the Corcoran Gallery biennials (six times) from 1907 to 1926 In 1915 Wetherill received a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco and, in 1926, he won a silver medal at the Sesqui-Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He also exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago and at the National Academy of Design in 1925.

Wetherill's work can be viewed in the collections of the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, MA; the Philadelphia Art Club; and the Luxembourg Museum in Paris.

Sources:
Who Was Who in American Art, vol. I, page 672; Who Was Who in American Art, 1999, page 3528; Davenport's Art Reference 2001/2002, page 1960; Fielding's 1986, page 1017; Mallett's, page 47; Whistler House Museum of Art files.