Virginia Cuthbert Elliott, a Buffalo artist who, with her husband, Philip C. Elliott, was a strong force in shaping the UB Department of Art, died on Jan. 24 in the Commons at Kenmore. She was 92.

Elliott and her late husband were teaching at the Albright Art School-he was director-when the school became the Department of Art at UB in the early 1950s. Philip Elliott became chair of the department, Virginia joined the faculty, and both remained at UB until 1969.

She established the Philip C. and Virginia Cuthbert Elliott Painting Scholarship that is awarded annually to a junior in the Painting Program.

Born in 1908 in West Newton, Pa., Virginia Cuthbert graduated from Syracuse University in 1930 with a bachelor's of fine arts degree and an Augusta Hazard Fellowship for European study. On her second day in Paris, she met Philip Elliott, who would become her husband in 1935.

Cuthbert studied in Florence and London, and in New York under "Ashcan School" realist George Luks.

A successful painter of the American scene, she showed her work in such prestigious exhibitions as the Whitney Museum of American Art's annual show of contemporary painting and the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh.

According to material from the UB Art Gallery, "her work reflects a lifelong emphasis on realism, varied by degrees of expressive stylization, and on the subjects of daily life."

Her work often appeared on the cover of Fortune magazine, and her January 1956 cover-a painting of the White House-was sent to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower for his Gettysburg farm.