Estill Curtis Pennington, historian who shined spotlight on KY artists, dies at 75
Estill Curtis Pennington, an art historian who was an authority on Southern artists and Kentucky portrait artists in particular, died Tuesday in Paris at age 75.
“Estill was a rigorous scholar who became a leading authority on antebellum Southern art and artists, especially its portrait painters,” said Tom Eblen, a friend and former Herald-Leader columnist. “He literally wrote the book on Matthew Harris Jouett, Kentucky’s most accomplished portraitist.
“Estill lived many places, including Amsterdam for several years, but he had a special place in his heart for his native Bourbon County, its people and its history. He will be missed by his many friends and admirers.”
Pennington studied at the University of Kentucky, George Washington University and in Europe.
During the course of his career, he worked as a field representative for the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, did work for the National Portrait Gallery and served as a director or curator for art museums in Mississippi, Georgia and Louisiana.
He worked in Amsterdam for about a decade before settling back down in Bourbon County in 2005.
Retailer Amazon lists more than 30 works Pennington either wrote or contributed to.
“I love finding artists who are virtually unknown in our own time and bringing them back to some kind of attention,” Pennington told the Herald-Leader in 2011. “It’s cultural archaeology.”
His book “Lessons in Likeness: Portrait Painters in Kentucky and the Ohio River Valley, 1802-1920” was honored with the Kentucky Historical Society’s General Award in 2011. The book, published by the University Press of Kentucky, was also nominated for the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Charles C. Eldredge Prize, honoring books that demonstrate “outstanding scholarship in American art.”
Among his numerous other works are 1985’s “William Edward West, 1788–1857, Kentucky Painter,” “Kentucky: The Master Painters from the Frontier Era to the Great Depression,” published in 2008, and “Matthew Harris Jouett (1788-1827) His Life & Work,” published in 2020.
“My goal is to heighten our awareness of Kentucky’s great cultural heritage,” Pennington said in the 2011. “I think it’s so important to understand that our antebellum history was so much more dynamic and important than people may understand today.”
Last year, he published “The Annals of Bourbon County, Kentucky, Volume One: Early History.”
Former state Rep. Sannie Overly, of Paris, referred to Pennington as “our teacher and collective memory keeper.”
“For the last thirty years, we have been friends who connected over our shared interest art, antiques and Bourbon County history,” Overly said. ”His mind was a repository for all things Bourbon County in particular. No matter where he had traveled in the world, his heart was dedicated to the land here in this place. He was a true son of Bourbon County and was dedicated to sharing his knowledge and wisdom with us all. He will be remembered for his abiding love for our community.”
Henry Hinkle grew up with Pennington in Bourbon County, and the friends reconnected in their later years, as both attended St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Paris.
Hinkle said Pennington “just had an incredible mind and probably a photographic memory.”
“He told me once that he had a memory of any painting that he ever actually saw,” Hinkle said.
“He was quite scholarly and an accomplished author, but he loved his Bourbon County roots,” Hinkle continued.
He said his friend was a “very kind person and very loyal to his faith.”
Funeral services are scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 19 at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Paris. Visitation will begin at 1:30 p.m.
