A native of Houston, Texas, Evelyne Byers Bessell worked across painting, drawing, and printmaking and played an active role in the early years of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She served as secretary to its first director, James H. Chillman Jr., and later taught painting and drawing at the museum’s School of Art. Bessell studied painting and drawing with John Clark Tidden at Rice Institute (now Rice University) and would go on to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the Art Institute of Chicago. She also traveled and painted in Mexico and was known in Houston for her work in watercolor, including portrait studies.
