A Pioneer of Southern Scenes: The Life and Art of Sarah Eakin Cowan Sarah Eakin Cowan, born in Hendersonville, North Carolina, in 1875, emerged as a quietly influential figure in American art during a period of significant social and artistic change. While not a household name today, her evocative paintings offer a compelling glimpse into the post-Reconstruction South, particularly its African American communities, rendered with sensitivity and a unique artistic vision. Cowan’s journey took her from formal training in Paris to becoming a chronicler of a vanishing way of life, and an advocate…