Rue d'Assas, Paris

Elizabeth Nourse’s Rue d’Assas, Paris depicts the buildings of the convent of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Sion as viewed from a living room of the artist’s fourth-floor studio and apartment at 80, rue d’Assas, in Paris. The calm scene appears deserted in the meager morning sunshine of an early spring day. The clustered angular buildings, with their varied rooflines and projecting chimneys, are seen through a thin screen of delicate branches just touched with early spring blossoms, creating a playful contrast of rigid planes and sinuous lines. The image is lightly drawn in charcoal, with watercolor and gouache (an opaque, water-based pigment) sparingly used to add subtle color to the surfaces of the buildings and to highlight the blossoms on the foreground boughs.

Nourse was a figural painter best known for her images of mothers and children. Throughout her career she also occasionally drew and painted landscapes and architectural subjects. Around 1905, she painted the large public park in Paris known as the Luxembourg Garden as seen from the room that served as both living room and studio in the apartment she shared with her older sister, Louise. During her recovery from an operation for breast cancer in 1920, Nourse turned again to the views from her windows. In addition to numerous paintings of the garden, she depicted the convent, as seen from other rooms in her apartment, in at least three other works in either oils or watercolors. All are undated, but one (private collection) is closely related to Rue d’Assas. The convent may have had personal significance for Nourse. Like her sister, she was a devout Catholic and member of a lay group known as the Third Order of Saint Francis. The image may have been made some years before the date inscribed on the drawing, which may be the year the artist made a present of Rue d’Assas to Pearl. This unidentified recipient was also the dedicatee of the two other Nourse works in the Terra Foundation collection. All three were in the artist’s possession at the time of her death.

Ville et campagne: les artistes américains, 1870–1920 (The City and the Country: American Perspectives, 1870–1920), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–July 15, 1999; Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, December 10, 1999–May 7, 2000 (in modified form). [exh. cat.]

On Process: Studio Themes, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 4, 2001.

(Re)Presenting Women, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, October 16, 2001–January 13, 2002.

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 31, 2005. [exh. brochure]

Le Passage à Paris: les artistes américains en France, 1860–1930 (Passing through Paris: American Artists in France, 1860–1930), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, April 1–October 29, 2006. [exh. brochure]

Gerdts, William H. et al. Lasting Impressions: American Painters in France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 35; fig. 21, p. 35 (black & white).

Gerdts, William H. et al. Impressions de toujours: les peintres américains en France, 1865–1915. (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1992. Text p. 35; fig. 21, p. 35 (black & white).