Janet Downie (1854-1944) moved to Austin, Texas from Detroit, Michigan in 1878. She received her earliest art training in England at the South Kensington Institute. After returning to the United States she continued her art studies at the Art Institute of Chicago.

     Downie was a landscape painter known especially for her small bluebonnets in oil. Downie taught art privately and was an art supervisor in the Austin Public Schools.

     She was a member of the San Antonio Art League; Southern States Art League; The Texas Fine Arts Association and others. She exhibited in the Edgar B. Davis Competition at the Witte Museum in San Antonio.