John Sites Ankeney

John S. Ankeney was born in Xenia, Ohio, on April 21, 1870. He received a bachelor of arts from the University of Missouri in 1906, and a doctorate from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas in 1926.

Before receiving his bachelor of arts, Ankeney studied at the Art Students League, New York, from 1889 to 1890, and again in 1892 to 1893. In Paris, he studied at the Académie Julian and École des Beaux-Arts from 1893 to 1895 and from 1903 to 1904. In 1905, 1908, and 1912, he studied in Europe, and during the summers of 1901 and 1914 he studied at Harvard College.

Ankeney was a student of John Twachtman, William Merritt Chase, Frank Vincent DuMond, and Augustus Saint-Gaudens at the Art Students League. He also studied at Harvard with Denman Waldo Ross, and in Europe with Jules-Joseph Lefebvre, Joseph Nicolas Robert-Fleury, Edmond-François Aman-Jean and Tudor Hart.

Ankeney’s first jobs were in the public school system. He was the supervisor of drawing in the Carthage School System in Carthage, Missouri from 1896 to 1898. He then worked in the Kansas City Public Schools in 1899. 

Ankeney began his career at the art department at the University of Missouri in 1901 as an instructor. He designed the official seal of the University of Missouri, and it was approved by the board of curators in 1903. He was promoted to assistant professor in 1905, associate professor in 1911, and professor in 1913 working at the university until 1935. He was on leave from the university from 1929 to 1935 to serve as director and curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in Dallas, Texas. In 1936, Ankeney was hired by Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, to teach art and was there until 1937. He also taught at Christian College (now Columbia College) in Columbia, Missouri in the 1940s.

Ankeney  was involved with art initiatives of the federal government, and on fine arts committees. In 1915, Ankeney was a member of the advisory committee of the fine arts department for the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, California. From 1933 to 1934, he was the regional director for Texas and Oklahoma for the Public Works of Art Project. In 1935, Ankeney was an advisor on the Commission for Decoration of Post Offices and Courthouses in Washington, D.C., and the Department of Interior Building in 1936. 

In his work, Ankeney was known for painting landscapes, especially of the Missouri River and its river bluffs, the Southwest, and the Rocky Mountains. He also did portraits of friends and family. After retiring, he traveled to Mexico studying art and painting.

John S. Ankeney died on May 16, 1946 in Columbia.